Book 3: The Commitment of an Officer
by FantasyMajesty
Summary: This is a sequel to "Book 2: The Strength of my Determination". Lin and Emi face a new, spirit infested Republic City, a group of dangerous terrorists, and a new Beifong relative. Emi knew that she would protect and love Lin until the end of her days, but she had no idea how far it would go. Mostly K, but might go up to T. Nickelodeon owns Legend of Korra.
1. Chapter 1

**Book 3: Change**

**You can't even imagine how sorry I am this took so long to get out!**

**When I posted Book 2, I thought it would take me only a couple weeks to get Book 3. Obviously, that didn't happen. Life decided to be an absolute asshole, and I lost my grandfather, got the flu, and was bombarded****by school work all at the same time. It just shows how awful winter is. I usually wait to upload stories when I'm completely done with them so I know that nothing contradicts anything, but I couldn't let this be a weight on my shoulders any longer. Updates for this book will be short and far between (*ducks a brick*). I know! I'm sorry, but I'm past 300 pages, and hate where the end of this story is going. I'm only going to upload a chapter when I know nothing in it will ever change at any given point. I might have to delete a couple dozen pages and start over to make it sound better and make more sense, but I promise I'm working as hard as I can. If you follow any of my other stories, you know that I've been working on those too so that might be part of the equation. Just everything has been a mess, and I'm apologizing more than an apology is worth to try and make it up to you guys. Anyone who loves these characters as much as I do deserves to have all their dreams come true. But, without further a do, Book 3...**

"I can't believe that we have to go to another one of these dang things."

Emi was whining on her way to the press conference that Raiko had called this morning. Lin honestly thought that it was kind of adorable.

"He's just trying to prove to the press that he deserves a poll rate over 15%," Lin assured her, "We'll be in and out in no time."

"Then we'll both be able to pick Hisa up from school!" Emi squealed excitedly, "She told me this morning that she thinks school was way more fun than she thought it would be. I'm so happy, and it was especially fantastic that Tenzin volunteered to pay for a private school."

"It was nice of him," Lin agreed, "Who knew that that man could be anything other that the stoic master of airbending." Tenzin had been unusually kind after the battle of UnaVaatu, and it had taken the two earthbenders in love by surprise. He had started a movement for higher police wages, he paid for Hisa's medical bills, and he even allowed them to bury Hisa's cat Pika on the island so, as he put it, 'he could rest easily with the spirits'. It made both women utterly confused.

"That airhead is surprising," Emi said as they turned the corner. Emi had to laugh out loud as she saw the tree that was growing though City Hall for what felt like the thousandth time this week. "If that's not karma, I don't know what is."

Lin laughed along with her as they walked up the stairs to City Hall where a press conference podium was set up. Raiko, his bodyguards, and his advisers were already there. Raiko had ordered Lin, Emi, and some of their best officers to be there because he felt that the public was getting a bit too rowdy. Lin and Emi both knew this wasn't the case.

After the Battle of UnaVaatu, Raiko had been a bit shaken. He was extremely paranoid, and more crabby than usual. He was also starting to get even bossier, and was getting on the Police Department's nerve. He felt that the Department hadn't done anything helpful during the Battle of UnaVaatu even though Lin had saved his life and the entire force had done what he had said. He cut back on their checks, and were now being paid minimum wage (which was why Tenzin came in to help with Hisa's school costs). He was giving the Department impossible demands that spread the force thin, and the Triads had started fighting over the vined in territory of the city that the Department had deemed unlivable. Everything was going just fantastic…

"There you are, finally," the President huffed as Lin and Emi came into his view. Emi growled and clenched her fists, and the only reason she didn't attack him was because Lin put a warm, loving hand over her's.

"We came as fast as we could Mr. President," Lin assured him.

"I highly doubt that," the President sneered, "And where are the rest of your officers?"

"We called them in, sir," Lin said, "They'll be here shortly."

"They better, for your sake," Raiko said with a finger pointed at Lin before turning back to his advisers."

"Who voted for him again?" Emi whispered angrily to Lin, "Because I'm going to throw them in jail."

"Shh," Lin quietly laughed as she covered Emi's mouth with her hand, "I don't want you to get fired."

It took another 30 minutes before Raiko's advisers left, Emi's officers arrived, and the press came. Emi set up her men in a line behind the press podium, and after Raiko's bodyguards gave her the all clear she got into her professional stance next to Lin, who was standing to the right of the podium. With that, the press conference began.

"Mr. President," one of the reports said, "Are you concerned that your approval ratings are now nearly as low as the Avatars?"

"Have you seen today's headline?" another asked, "I says _Raik-Oh No: Polls Pan Press Plans_."

Emi almost laughed at that one. For the last two weeks the press had been making the funniest, cleverest headlines, and Emi laughed at almost every, single one of them.

"I'm not concerned with snappy put-downs in the press," Raiko told the reporter with a little irritation audible. "I'm facing this collamaty just like every other citizen." Raiko pointed to City Hall behind him. "There is a tree growing right through my office. Do you think I'm not doing everything I can to get rid of it?"

Emi smiled when she saw Korra fly into view on her custom made, blue Air Glider. She landed to the left of the President that caused a gust of air to past over Raiko. It made his glasses crooked and caused some of his 'perfectly', smoothed down hair to pop out of place. Emi was actually glad she came to this press conference. It was the funniest thing that had happened all week.

Emi watched as Raiko put is hair and glasses back where they were supposed to go with a scowling face before reporters started to ask the young Avatar questions.

"Avatar Korra, do you regret the way you handled the Unalaq crises?"

"Why are you forcing the integration of spirits into Republic City?"

"Listen," Korra said, trying to calm down the press, "I've been trying everything I can think of to get rid of these vines, but…"

"Why can't you fix this?" a reporter interrupted.

"Are the vines here to stay?"

"Is this part of your new world order?"

Emi felt her teeth clench together. These people were better at yelling than Raiko and that was something she thought would never happen. Even Lin felt sympathy for the frustrated Avatar.

"Look!" Korra said with a raised voice so everyone could hear her. "Harmonic Convergence was just a couple weeks ago. I just need a little more time to get everything back to normal…"

"The _Avatar _has put us all in a difficult position," Raiko interrupted Korra, "But my administration…"

"Oh I'm sorry," Korra angrily interrupted him, "Did I put you in a difficult position by fight the giant force of pure evil that was going to destroy the whole world?" Korra reached up, grabbed Raiko's chin, and mockingly rocked his head back and forth. "Maybe your administration could have handled that!"

Lin grumbled before walking out of her position, and pushing the two apart.

"That's all," She said over the press conference microphones, "No more questions."

Lin gave the Avatar a glare as Raiko walked back into City Hall trailed by his bodyguards and advisers, who had been waiting inside. Lin then walked away from the podium as workers began to move it back into City Hall, and walked over to Emi.

"Well that was fun," She said sarcastically.

"I can't believe Raiko would say that," Emi growled furiously, "He literally said…" She hunched her shoulders, and messed up her brown locks on top of her head. She put a frown on her face, and started to mock Raiko's posture and voice. "The Avatar has put us in a very difficult position, but my administration blah blah blah. That's just awful! We both saw Korra battling UnaVaatu _and _defeating him. She saved us, and he's making her look bad."

"He just wants to come off as the savior in this situation," Lin tried to calm her girlfriend down as they walked away from City Hall. "Besides, if a tree through is office is karma to the world, I think he'll get what's coming to him."

"Oh I hope so," Emi grumbled before forcefully putting one of her signature smiles on her face. "But on a more positive note, let's go pick up Hisa!"

Lin just smiled, and shook her head as her girlfriend skipped off. _How could she have that much energy?_ Lin asked herself as she ran to keep up.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2:**

**I have good news! I'm just pages away from being done writing Book 3. It went a lot longer than I anticipated, and for that I apologize again, but it's nearly over. After I get it done, I will immediately start Book 4, but Book 4 will not be the last story I write for these two. As an encore of sorts, Book 4 will be made into two parts that I imagine will each be as long as this book. Also, I couldn't find a good stopping point while I was proof reading this chapter, so this will be a long one. Thank you all for your support! Reviews are always welcome, but without further a do... Chapter 2.**

Lin and Emi walked the distance to the Republic City Private School. It was a beautiful school, and it had actually been Lin's school when she was little. She commented on how they had upgraded the architecture and technology from when she went there, and how it made her feel old. This earned her a yelling from Emi, who continued to tell her not to get herself down about her age.

"But don't you remember when Varrick said I looked like I was in my sixties?" Lin asked Emi.

"Yeah and he's an escaped criminal who wouldn't be able to tell a Moose-lion from a flying lemur," Emi told her as they walked even closer to the school's entrance that was now overflowing with children and parents leaving for the day. "You are beautiful just the way you are. Your amazing silver locks," Emi's stroked her hand through then to make her point. "Are apart of you, and are really soft."

Lin just rolled her eyes with a smile on her face as she noticed a little girl in crutches coming over to them. Lin reached down, and picked up Hisa, who was breathing hard from all the extra work she had to do to walk now. Emi took the crutches from the girl's grasp, and kissed her on the forehead.

"How was your day at school sweetie?" Emi asked the tired child.

"It was fun!" Hisa through her heavy breathing. "We made macaroni pictures in art, learned about Avatar Kyoshi in history, started a book about the 100 Year War in Languages, and I made a friend."

"You did?!" Emi squealed happily, clapping her hands enthusiastically. "Who is it?"

"He's hiding over there," Hisa said, pointing to one of the decorative bushes that stood outside the school. "It's okay Jun, you can come out."

They watched as a little boy around Hisa's age popped his head out of the bushes. He had pale skin, light brown hair, and lots of freckles covering his face. He looked fearfully over at the trio before taking a deep breath and walking over to them. He was visibly shaking as he walked up to them. Emi gave him a smile, and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Jun," Emi told the boy, who was slowly starting to relax. "My name is Emilia, and this is Lin, and we're Hisa's foster parents."

"Nice to meet you ma'ams," the boy said in a sweet by stuttery voice.

"Jun came to me at first," Hisa explained, "When he saw that I could do what he could do, and it made me happy to know I wasn't the only one that could do it."

"Do what sweetie?" Emi asked, looking at Lin with a raised eyebrow, but the Chief just shrugged her shoulders.

"We can airbend!" Hisa gleefully cheered before bending out a gust of air with her punched out fist. Lin and Emi gapped as Hisa started throwing around air, and Jun joined in with a smile.

"This is impossible," Lin whispered, "There are only five airbenders in the world, and I don't believe you two are apart of them."

"Where in the world did you learn to do that?" Emi asked, fascinated and scared at the same time.

"It just came to us sometime today," Hisa explained.

"Have you told your parents about this?" Emi asked Jun. Jun hung his head at her question, and Emi looked confused.

"That is another thing we have in common," Hisa said, "He doesn't have any parents either."

"I'm apart of the orphanage down the street," Jun said, pointing southward along the road. "I'm one of the few kids from the orphanage that was given the funding to go to a private school since I was bullied in the public school system."

"Oh you poor thing," Emi said. She was about to say something else, but the sound of running footsteps stopped her. She turned to see Mako running up to them with what appeared to be a very red face. Emi turned her head to the side in confusion.

"Do I even want to know?" Emi asked the panting detective.

"Captain, Chief, hear me out," Mako breathed, "I was at the Station all night, and got an emergency call early this morning. I went over to this antique store downtown, and this guy went on a rant about how he and his brother had a fight and then things started flying around. Next thing I know, the guy, who could supposedly airbend, blew a door into my face and… got away."

"That explains why your face is so red," Emi giggled.

"Why are you not surprised by this?!" Mako cried in shock.

"Because we've got two airbenders right here!" Emi chuckled, pointing to the two children.

"Oh," Mako said with a raised eyebrow. "Please don't blow a door in my face."

"Well they are going to learn to," Emi beamed before turning to the two children. "How would you two like to go to Air Temple Island?"

"That's sounds awesome!" Hisa cried, "Let's do it!"

"Wait Emi," Lin said, "We need to check in on the orphanage before we can take the kid, or else we'll be no better than any other kidnappers."

"You can take him officer," an old woman said as she walked over to them with her cane, "One less pain in my caboose for the evening."

"And you are?" Lin asked with a raised eyebrow.

"She's one of the caretakers at the orphanage," Jun explained, "She's my group's caretaker."

"Yeah, and I can talk for myself lad," the woman scowled, "The name is Chiyo, officers. Don't let this boy reflect back on me."

With that said, the woman started to scoot back down the street at a snail's pace. Emi looked from Jun to the old woman and then back to Jun.

"Don't take her attitude personally," Jun told her, "She's not very nice to anyone. She only took the orphanage job because she wouldn't have to pay taxes, or pay the rent, and she couldn't get any other job with her bad back."

"Ok," Emi said as she started to find the old woman slightly creepy, "Let's go to Air Temple Island then, shall we?"

Lin, who was still caring Hisa, Emi, Jun, and Mako walked to the docks, and got on the ferry that would take them to the island in the middle of the bay. Mako didn't seem to be pleased to be going to the island, and Emi knew why.

"Come on Mako," Emi teased the detective, "You aren't still afraid of Korra and Asami are you?"

"I was never afraid of them per say," Mako defended himself, "But it will be really awkward to be in the presence of both of them."

"You are the only one that can make the scene awkward Mako," Emi told him, "And I know that you're afraid to lose their friendship. Just be yourself, and nothing will go wrong."

"I hope so," Mako said as he scratched the back of his neck.

Emi just smiled and shook her head as the ferry came to a stop at the island's dock. Emi watched as Jun looked up at the tower of the island's temple.

"Never seen this place up close huh?" Emi asked him.

"I've only seen the lights from my bedroom window," Jun said in awe, "This place is beautiful."

"And very peaceful," Emi agreed, "Would you want to live here if you could?"

"I would love to live here, without a doubt," the boy exclaimed without hesitation. "It would be nice to smell air every morning that wasn't filled with the smell of city's pollution or our caretaker's cooking."

Emi laughed as they walked up to the Temple courtyard. Emi remembered that the last time they had been here she and Lin had been fighting Equalists and then they had to fly away from Amon's airships on Oogie. Emi remembered seeing Lin jumping off the sky bison, and taking out the first ship. She also remembered the fear when she saw Lin get electrocuted when trying to destroy the second one…

Lin must have remembered this too because she reached out and squeezed Emi's hand. Emi squeezed back, and felt much better. She, however, became confused when she saw what was in front of her.

In the center of attention was Bumi, and he was flailing his arms around and punching at the sky. Kya stood next to him with a hand on her hip, and a raised eyebrow. Bolin, Meelo, Ikki, and Pema, who was holding baby Rohan, sat on the steps to the courtyard, and Asami was leaning against one of the wooden pillars of the patio while Jinora, Tenzin, and Korra were standing at the top of the stairs. All were watching Bumi struggle, but with what Emi had no clue. They walked past the thrashing Bumi and irritated looking Kya to where everyone else was situated.

"Invisible spirit monster attack?" Lin asked as she set Hisa down, and handed over her crutches. The little girl limped over to Jinora, who gave the girl a hug. The two girls had become friends in the two weeks after UnaVaatu's attack. Tenzin had come to offer his assistance when he had heard that Lin and Emi had fostered a child. Jinora had come along too, and Hisa and Jinora had gotten along as soon as they were introduced. Jinora loved teaching Hisa new things from her books, while Hisa loved teaching Jinora some of her Judo moves. While living on the streets, Hisa had met an old Judo master which was where she had gotten the story of 'living with an old man' when Emi and Lin had first met her. The old master had taught Hisa his complete collection of Judo knowledge and had given her shelter before he passed away. Hisa said she wouldn't be alive today without it.

Emi laughed at Lin's comment because it did actually look like Bumi was fighting something monstrous and invisible.

"Lin, you won't believe this," Tenzin said with more energy than Emi had heard him use in a while, "Bumi just started airbending."

Lin, Emi, and Mako exchanged looks.

"Well he's definitely not the only one," Emi smirked.

"What?!" Korra and Tenzin said at the exact same time.

"Show them kids!" Emi encouraged Jun and Hisa.

"I'm not very good," Jun said as he rubbed his hands together. "I only found out today."

"You don't need to be good," Emi assured him, "You just need to show them that I'm not going crazy."

Emi was happy to see a smile spread across the boy's face before Hisa walked over to him. They both started blowing gusts of wind and air flows that, Emi was happy to see, made Tenzin's jaw drop.

"Oh my…" Tenzin began, but he was cut off by his daughter.

"This is amazing," Jinora said, running over to her friend. "Now I can show you how to airbend! We can be airbending buddies."

"That sounds like fun, but only if Jun can come too," Hisa said, pointing to Jun, who was hiding behind her.

"Can they stay Dad? Please!" Jinora begged, "We have more than enough room, and it would be amazing to have more _airbenders _at an _air _temple."

"I'm just still trying to wrap my head around this," Tenzin said as he put one of his large hands to his head.

"Well by the size of your forehead I'm sure you'll manage," Emi giggled as Tenzin turned red. Emi smirked proudly at her insult when Bolin started laughing so hard that he fell off the side of the staircase with an "oof".

"And they're not the only ones airbending now," Mako intervened before a fight could break out.

"Really?" Tenzin asked, completely redirecting his attention to Mako.

"I got a call last night about an guy that started airbending out of nowhere," Mako told him.

"Where is he now?" Tenzin asked.

"He blew a door down on me and got away," Mako said, turning slightly in the other direction so they couldn't see his embarrassed face. "We've got an all points bulletin out on him right now."

"Dad you didn't answer my question," Jinora complained.

"Yes, what is it sweetie?" Tenzin asked his daughter.

"Can Hisa and Jun stay with us since their airbenders and they should be trained?" Jinora asked again.

Tenzin didn't answer her, and instead turned to Lin and Emi. In turn, Emi turned to Hisa.

"Would you want to stay here?" Emi asked the girl.

"It's a nice place filled with other airbenders and possible friends," Hisa told her excitedly, "I think this place would be fun place to live, but I don't want to leave you guys."

"We won't let you leave completely," Emi assured her, "You can't get rid of us that easily." This made Hisa laugh, and Emi leaned down and gave a girl a kiss to her cheek. "You know you will always have a special place in our hearts, but this is, after all, a foster relationship and you would have to go somewhere eventually. I couldn't think of anywhere better than here, if _the master_ gives you his permission."

They turned to Tenzin, and Tenzin found all eyes on him.

"Well this is an Air Temple," He said, "It would be nice to have them all filled once again."

"So is that a yes?" Jinora asked.

"It is a yes," Tenzin confirmed.

"Yeah," Jinora squealed before hugging Hisa again, but something stopped Hisa from celebrating just yet.

"I've only got one request," Emi said, making the girls turn.

"What's that?" Hisa asked questionably.

"You let Anju check in and sometimes tag along with you."

A bright light illuminated the sky, and Anju suddenly flew down. She soared around their heads before coming to a stop in front of Emi's face.

"I heard my name," The little spirit said in her squeaky, young voice. "Am I needed?"

"Yes," Emi told her. "Hisa here got airbending, and they're going to be staying at Air Temple Island while they train. Could you possibly check in now and again so we know where they are when Lin and I can't?"

"Of course," Anju said as she spun around excitedly. "Happy to help."

"Oh wow," Jinora said as she looked at Anju's floating body. "You're amazing."

"Why thank you," Anju smiled, "I'm Anju the dragon-eel spirit, and friends to humans and spirits alike. You have a strong, spiritual core. What is your name?"

"I'm Jinora," Jinora introduced herself. "Happy to know that you're going to be around here often. I love meeting new spirits!"

"I didn't agree to a spirit staying," Tenzin interjected.

"It's not like you're kicking Bum-Ju off the island," Emi argued, "What makes Anju any different?"

"She speaks the truth," Bumi chuckled as he continued to fling his arms around in the air like he was delusional as said bunny-fly spirit flew around his head.

"Ugh," Tenzin gave a defeated sigh. He really was against Emi's pet spirit hanging around the temple, but he couldn't say that the reason he didn't want her there was because she would report back to Emi directly. "Fine, the spirit can stay."

"What about Jun?" Hisa asked.

"He is welcome too if he wants to," Tenzin assured her.

"But we don't exactly own him," Lin told Tenzin. "We would have to gain possession and then turn him over to you, but that doesn't mean he can't have a week long sleepover or something."

Hisa giggled before giving the Chief of Police a hug that startled everyone but Emi.

"I'm going to miss you kid," Lin told Hisa as she hugged back after her moment of shock. "But _I _have one request before you go."

"What's that?" Hisa asked.

"Don't turn into that airhead over there," Lin said, gesturing to Tenzin.

"Will do!" Hisa said enthusiastically.

"Pinkie promise?" Lin asked, holding up her pinkie.

"Pinkie promise!" Hisa assured her former guardian before wrapping her pinkie finger around Lin's.

Lin then straightened to her full height, and found Emi millimeters away from her face wearing a sly smile.

"And you said you weren't good with kids," the younger woman smirked. Lin just rolled her eyes, and started to walk away. Emi smirked after her before turning to give Hisa goodbye hug. "We'll bring over all your stuff, and we'll make sure to see you at least twenty times a month if not more," Emi assured the girl.

"Okay," Hisa said, "Bye bye!"

"Bye bye, cutie!" Emi told her as she stepped very close to Tenzin's face. "If anything happens to her, you're abnormally large nose will be broken!" Emi threatened the Airbending Master with a raised fist.

"Okay, got it!" Tenzin said fearfully, flinching away.

Emi pursed her lips before withdrawing. She waved at Hisa, Jinora, Jun, and the floating form of Anju before walking back towards the docks. Before she went out of the courtyard, someone snagged the collar of her uniform.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Lin asked Emi. Emi looked back to find Mako in a conversation with Korra and Asami. Emi was glad that he was finally having that talk, but she honestly wanted to get back to the station. She grumbled before staying put. Lin released her girlfriend's collar, and found Bumi uncomfortably close.

"Now that I'm an airbender Lin you have to date me," Bumi said.

Lin growled and Emi laughed. Emi knew that Bumi was just trying to get under Lin's skin, and it was working.

"Shove off Bumi," Lin snarled, "If I've learned anything from dating Aang's kids, it's that they are ridiculous."

"Who are you calling ridiculous?" Kya asked, looking clearly offended.

"You traveled to Fire Nation without telling anyone, and you came back to a worried sick Katara with 'I'm sorry'!" Lin snarled at her, "Who does that? Oh maybe someone who can be classified as ridiculous!"

"Well at least I have other clothes besides a uniform," Kya yelled back, "Who comes to an Avatar family dinner wearing sweaty metal?"

"Well at least I have the common sense to get a life while you go off around the world trying to 'find yourself'," Lin said mockingly, "It finally took your father's death of all things to make you have any sympathy!"

"Well at least I had a real father!" Kya started to scream, "I can't say the same for you!"

"Okay let's break it up!" Emi shouted to get their attention. The two older woman crossed their arms over their chest, and turned their backs on each other. Emi looked back and forth between the two before thinking of a guess to why they were acting so weird. "Oh… were you two dating?"

Lin whirled around to look at her in alarm, "No!" She snarled, "You're the first woman I've ever dated, and I would never, ever date the likes of that slimy toadstool!"

"Same old Lin," Kya growled over her shoulder, "As dumb as a rock with a heart of stone. You have a great life ahead of you kid, don't waste your time with her selfishness like I had to deal with growing up."

It took Emi to realized that Kya was talking to her.

"No, goodness! I would never leave Lin," Emi truthfully told the waterbender, "She's my love for life."

Kya threw her hands up in the air in frustration. "Your emotion's funeral."

Lin gave a roar before trying to charge the waterbender. It took Emi's quick reflexes and Bumi's strength to be able to push the furious metalbender back. Kya bent a threatening, spinning circle of water around herself from a nearby garden pond.

"Let her go!" Kya encouraged, "I'll shove some sense into her."

"I'll punch enough sense into you to fill that cavity in your head where your brain should be!" Lin shouted back as she actually was succeeding in dragging both Bumi and Emi, who were struggling to hold her back, closer to Kya.

"Mako!" Emi shouted to the firebender. "We're leaving!"

Mako immediately cut off his conversation, and rushed to help Emi and Bumi with Lin. Korra jumped in between Lin and Kya, and bent Kya's water away.

"Woah guys, easy!" The Avatar said, looking fearfully between the fuming waterbender and the furious metalbender.

"Miss Beifong, what's wrong?" Hisa asked Lin. The child's question was finally enough to make Lin stop struggling.

"Nothing," the Chief said, "I just needed to take my frustration out on something that was alive and breathing and deserved it. I've done that. Let's go."

Lin gesture to Emi and Mako, who quickly followed the Chief of Police. Emi could hear Tenzin scolding Kya as they made their way back down to the docks. Once they were back at the Police Station, Emi followed Lin into her office.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3:**

**I have more good news! I just finished Book 3 during finals week! That's probably not a good idea on my part, but it was totally worth it. Expect chapters to be uploaded faster than before, but don't expect them every single day. I need to have some time to proofread it and also to work on Book 4 before I'm completely finished with Book 3 or else we're going to have another multiple month break again which I don't want. Also, completely off topic, now that I'm out of school, I have more time to write... and draw. I've already said that I have a DevaintArt account (link here if you want to check it out: fantasymajesty) and I've already got one drawing of Lin and Emi uploaded there, but I just wanted to say that if you guys have any requests about possible scenes or costumes that I've described in these stories or anything else in between that you would like me to draw... Let me know via this account or my DeviantArt account! I'm really interested in what you guys want to see when it comes to this story! But enough talk, let's read!**

"What was that?" Emi asked her as her girlfriend sat down, "That was really random."

"It was just a lot of cooped up rage coming out at the same time," Lin assured her, "It's not like you haven't seen that before."

"But that was more than just pure frustration," Emi continued, and Lin sighed irritably.

"After I graduated from the Academy and after Tenzin and I broke up, Kya was the one to cheer me up," Lin explained, "After she heard about how Tenzin had been cheating on me with Pema, she came to comfort me. I was desperate to find someone to replace Tenzin because I hadn't been alone for years, but I didn't really want a family friend to be that someone. That made her angry because she thought that I thought she wasn't good enough, and she keeps ruining everything with her family when she actually has a good family which makes me frustrated. If you have a good family, you're really lucky. She just doesn't appreciate it enough."

"You need to go apologize," Emi said suddenly.

"Why do I need to be the one who apologizes?" Lin asked angrily.

"Because you're the stronger woman," Emi said, "The stronger woman goes against her fears and hardships to end a conflict. You're very good at ending conflicts, but this one requires a little more gentleness than just throwing a bad guy in jail."

Lin didn't say anything. Emi knew that what she said was necessary in order to make Lin reconsider. The Chief of Police was stubborn, but Emi was clever. She knew that Lin would reconsider if her ego and reputation was put on the line.

"Alright," Lin gave in. "_If_ I can, I'll _try_ to find Kya and apologize."

"Thank you," Emi smiled before kissing Lin against her temple. A knock sounded at the Chief's door. Emi quickly picked up some papers off of Lin' desk, and started to examine them like they were really interesting. Lin chuckled silently at the goofy face she was making.

"Come in," the Chief told whoever it was. To both the officers' surprise Bolin came into the room. He looked like he had run there from the other side of the city.

"Korra… told… me… to tell… you," Bolin tried to speaking through his panting breath. Lin rolled her eyes.

"Catch your breath first then talk," she said as she leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. Bolin sucked in a deep breath, and blew it back out. Emi giggled behind her papers as Bolin's breathing got easier.

"Okay, so Korra thinks she's found a way to get rid of the vines, and she didn't want to get in trouble so she asked me to run and ask you," Bolin explained, "She's also looking for a place where vines are growing and there is a lot of water, but only if you say yes."

"Well if it works, then it'll get Raiko off my tail so I'm all in for it," Lin said.

"And I think there is a clump of vines growing on one of the old noodle restaurants and the apartment block area down by the Roku River," Emi said, "There's a bridge there, and more than enough water."

"Great," Bolin smiled, "I'll go tell Korra." With that he ran back out of the Police Station to go tell the Avatar. After he was gone, Emi turned to Lin.

"We're not going to miss this, right?"

"No we are not," Lin agreed before getting out of her chair. They used the power cables to travel the distance to the Roku River, and found Bolin and Korra just getting there themselves.

"Did you need something?" Korra asked them as they walked up to them.

"No. We just want to make sure that if things don't go according to plan we're here to straighten it back out again," Lin said with little to no interest.

"Okay," Korra said, looking unconvinced before turning to the the group of vines that clung to the seven story building.

"You've got this Korra," Emi said encouragingly.

"I hope this works," the Avatar pleaded. She was about to start waterbending when they all heard the sound of walking feet. The four of them turned around, and all of their hearts sank. Raiko stood there with his bodyguards, advisers, and reporters behind him.

"What are you guys doing here?" Korra asked angrily.

"I was alerted that you had a new plan to knock out these obnoxious weeds, so I thought you would want everyone to be here to watch," the President smirked evilly.

_Note to self_, Emi thought with a snarl visible on her lips, _never mess up Raiko's hair_.

"Avatar Korra, do you really think…" one of the reporters tried to squeeze in a question, but was stopped by the already infuriated Avatar.

"No questions!" Korra shouted, putting her hand up in a stop gesture, "Just stand there, silently!"

They, thankfully, obeyed as Korra walked farther along the bridge towards the vines. They watched as Korra's eyes began to glow white, and as her arms and hands started to move in fluid motions. She started to bend two spouts of water, binding it in spirals that spun around the building. The two spouts met at the top of the building, and as Korra's arms made an upward motion, they started to glow yellow. The vines started to slowly release their grasp, and fall back into the water from which they had sprung from.

"Go in peace," The Avatar said as the last of the vines went away. Lin and Emi, who were very impressed, didn't notice the reporters breaking rank and walking up to the Avatar.

"How did you know what to do?" One of the reporters asked,

"Will you send the spirits away now?"

"How soon can we expect public water service to resume?"

Korra, Emi, and Lin barely had time to glare as the ground beneath their feet began to shake. Vines, bigger than the ones before, started to encase the same building again. They moved over the building at lightning fast pace, but they weren't done yet. They sprouted in the other direction, and covered a building that people were living in. Emi gasped, and rushed over as the building began to topple.

Emi, Lin, and Bolin bent out pillars of stone from the surrounding concrete to keep the building from falling over. Korra blew down the door to the building, and yelled at the people inside to get out. Emi saw a little boy trapped upstairs, and bent out her cables. She climbed the building just as fast as the vines, broke through the window, and grabbed the boy. He held tightly to her uniform as Emi felt the building shake even more. She looked up, and gasped in shock as the tower at the top of the building began to fall off the roof towards her. She jumped down, and earthbent a ramp that she slid down to safety. While she was doing this, Lin got into her earthbending stance and gave a grunt as she levitated the fallen tower long enough for the people under it to move before letting it gentle to the ground. Emi released the boy, who ran over to his mother, and walked over to the panting Lin.

"You okay?" Emi asked with concern.

"Yeah," Lin breathed as she popped her back, "That was just a lot heavier than I expected."

Korra and Bolin walked over to them, and they all looked up to the barely standing building.

"I think that could have gone better," Bolin mumbled with a defeated sigh, and everyone agreed.

Lin and Emi returned to the Police Station again. Korra and Bolin had gone back to Air Temple Island, and Emi was sad to see that the Avatar's confidence was dwindling. Emi couldn't believe that she served a public that was so disrespectful against the woman who saved them from a destructive doom two times already.

Lin too felt bad for the Avatar, but chose not to do anything. Everyone had their problems, and she had her own. One of these problems was Raiko. Her officers were now as grumpy as she was, and some of them were threatening to quit. With the amount of officers that were still in hospitals after the UnaVaatu attack, she needed all hands on deck and they needed to be focused, good working ones.

Lin stayed in her office the rest of the afternoon with just her thoughts and reports while Emi commanded her officers doing the search for the airbenders over the phone.

"Did you check down by the 45th Street Plaza?" Emi asked.

"Yes," Akira answered over the phone's speakers. "And by the farmers market and by the docks and by the city boarders. We haven't found anything yet."

"Well keep looking," Emi said, "I'm going to check in with Song."

"Ok Captain" was the last thing Emi heard before hanging up, and calling Song.

"Anything Song?" Emi asked him.

"Actually yes,"Song said, "We've interviewed people who said that they saw someone being blown into the air every couple of steps as they ran down street. They said he was heading towards Kioshi Bridge, and he fit the description that Mako reported. We sent Mako, considering he's seen the guy, with a team of metalbenders towards the bridge, and we're hoping to find something concerning the…"

As he spoke, Emi heard the ring through the phone that meant someone else was calling her.

"Hold on Song," Emi stopped her officer, "Someone else is calling me."

"Sure thing Captain," Song said before hanging up. Emi answered the phone, and was immediately met with a bunch of yelling that was so loud she had to push the phone away from her ear and it attracted the attention of everyone else in the room.

"Captain! Emi!" Mako's voice rang out as Emi heard what sounded like a hurricane in the background. "We found the airbender, but he's tough to get a hold of! He is currently running east on Yuuki Street! We're requesting backup!"

"Request granted! Call Korra on Air Temple Island! We could use her help on this one!" Emi yelled through the phone, so he could hear her. She then pulled her head away from the phone again before started to yell at the officers in the room. "Someone call in a swat team, and a truck. We need at least four units of officers in case it becomes a chase."

The yelling outside her officer had caught Lin's attention. She quickly got up from her desk, and opened her office door.

"What's going on?" Lin asked Emi as the Captain bent on her uniform.

"Mako found the airbender, but he's having trouble bringing him in," Emi told her as she rushed around the room grabbing equipment. "He's heading towards Kioshi Bridge." Emi stopped running when she saw one of the crowd controlling megaphones. She picked it up, and looked questioningly at Lin. "Do you think he would be dumb enough to climb the bridge?"

"Who knows," Lin said as she caught the megaphone that Emi threw to her. "It's always a possibility."

With that Lin and Emi headed out of the station, and into the requested truck before it pulled away. Once there, they were surprised to see that there was a blockade of police cars blocking the public from getting onto the bridge. Some officers parted the crowd and other metalbending officers moved the metal barricades, so the truck could get through.

"Uh oh," Emi said as she noticed that Mako and his officers were looking up at one of the bridge's green, decorative, support towers. They got out of the truck, and headed over to the ground of officers. They all saluted the Chief before looking back up. Lin and Emi now could see the speck of a man nearly at the top of the tower. He was clinging for dear life to one of the criss-crossing beams, and he looked utterly terrified.

"How in the world did he get up there?" Emi asked in astonishment.

"It was actually kind of amazing," Mako commented, "We chased him through the streets for a while until he went running onto the bridge, and he just went flying up there. It was impressive for anyone especially one who has never bent an element before."

"Well even though his methods of getting up their were impressive," Lin said, "We still need to get him down. He could get killed falling from that height." She turned to the metalbending officers around her. "I need you all to climb the bridge's support cables and get onto the main cable," She pointed to each cable as she spoke," We need the height advantage. Everyone's safety is the number one concern!"

They immediately followed orders, and bent their cables around the bridge's cables and started to climb. Just as they got to the top, Emi heard the sound of a sky bison. Oogie landed in front of the public barricade, and Tenzin, Bolin, and Korra hopped out of the saddle. They came over just as Lin raised the megaphone to her lips.

"Come down immediately!" Lin's voice rang out loud enough for the airbender to hear her. It sounded like music to Emi's ears. "Or we will be forced to take action."

"Stay back, I'm dangerous!" The airbender yelled at the metalbending officers, who stood threateningly on the bridge cables above him. Just as one officer bent out his cables towards the airbender, the airbender sent out a burst of wind. Emi gasped as the officers went flying off the bridge. She feared they would land in the water, but they bent out their cables just in time. All of them hopped back onto the concrete bridge before Korra took her blue glider and flew up to the airbender herself.

After making sure the Avatar landed safely at the very top of the bridge, Emi turned to her officers. "Everyone alright?" She asked.

"Yep," Naoko said, "It was a little surprising, but nothing we can't handle."

"Good," Emi said, "Because now I need you all to be on alert in case Korra's talk with this new airbender doesn't go as planned."

"Sure thing Captain," Naoko said before he and the rest of the officers ran out, so they were directly under where Korra and the airbender were situated. Emi walked back over to Lin, who hadn't taken her eyes off of the airbender.

"This has been a crazy and exhausting day, hasn't it?" Emi said with a yawn to prove her point.

"It has," Lin agreed, "And I believe it's about to get even worse."  
"Why's that?" Emi asked in alarm, looking around.

"Raiko has arrived," Lin grumbed before pointing over her shoulder. Emi turned to see that it was indeed Raiko's car that was joining the traffic jam of cars behind the barricade.

"How did you know that?" Emi asked in astonishment. "You've been watching the airbender the entire time."

"You're not the only one who's been getting better with her seismic sense," Lin smirked at her girlfriend.

"Not bad," Emi complimented with a smirk of her own before she heard a scream. She looked up to see that the airbender had slipped off the metal bridge, and was descending fast towards the ground. Thankfully Korra snagged him just in time with her glider. She flew over the police officers and Oogie before landing in front of the barricaded crowd, who were cheering. Tenzin ran over to Korra and the new airbender faster than Emi had ever seen him move before.

"I think he's excited," Emi whispered to Lin, who chuckled, before they walked over to them. Just as they got there, Raiko broke from the barricaded crowd and gestured to be allowed to enter. The officers guarding the blockade looked between Raiko and Emi. Emi sighed before unwillingly giving the officers permission to let the President in. They nodded before metalbending one of the metal barricades out of the way. Raiko stepped forward before saying:

"So is this the deal?" the apparently angry President asked with a clear bite in his voice. "We have a crisis every other day now thanks to you?" He pointed at the Avatar rather menacingly.

Emi barred her teeth at the President, and Lin could hear the deep growl in her throat. Lin rubbed her girlfriend's arm to relax her muscles, and Emi was happy to feel it helping.

"Listen I know you are having a tough time getting used to these changes and I'm sorry for that," Korra said more calmly than Emi had ever heard her talk to the President. "But you and everyone else are going to have to learn to live with it. The vines and the spirits are here to stay."

"Well you know who's not here to stay, you!" Raiko roared, "I order you to leave this city! You've caused nothing but trouble since you arrived!"

Emi gasped as did the crowd of civilians behind him. Emi stepped forward before Lin could stop her.

"Mr. President, I know you are stressed right now as we all are, but I encourage you to reconsider," Emi pleaded with Raiko before whispering under her breathe, "You should reconsider more than a couple things."

"My mind is made up," The President said, "Don't make me order you to leave as well Officer Emilia. It's not like you've been much better than she has."

Emi growled angrily, and probably would have continued if Korra's arm hadn't stopped her. "I appreciate your input Emi, but please don't throw away your job for me," After Emi gave a nod at the Avatar's words, Korra turned to Raiko. "I was just leaving anyway."

Emi and Korra turned their backs on the President, and he turned his back on them before heading back over to his bodyguards and car. Emi placed a reassuring hand on Korra's shoulder before walking back over to Lin. Korra stopped to talk to Tenzin, and Lin glared at Emi.

"Stop getting in trouble," Lin hissed at her. "I won't be able to handle work if you get fired."

"Relax," Emi winked at Lin. "He's terrified of me. He wouldn't dare. Besides, I've actually got a reason to be cheerful after everything that's happened. We've got the whole condo to ourselves now, remember, and tomorrow is our day off. What do you say we go home, and have some fun."

Lin felt her cheeks get warm at her girlfriend's words, and the looks that Emi was giving her just below her neckline weren't helping either. Lin just hoped she had enough energy still to make her girlfriend's hinted at request a good one.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4:**

**Here's another chapter everyone, and I hope you all are enjoying with story! I'm going to keep this short and sweet. My love for reviews and my offer for drawing anything that is related to this story still stands. Any word from my fans is nice to read, and I'm always excited to see, and possibly answer, any questions, requests, or comments. Check out my DeviantArt under FantasyMajesty to see my artwork for this story, but without further adieu, Chapter 4!**

The next morning both officers found it hard to get out of bed. They were well relaxed, and Lin wished she could always feel this way. But with a job like the one she had, she couldn't feel anything other than stressed if she hoped to do a good job. A pair of lips to her neck brought Lin back down to earth. Lin moaned as Emi licked a bruise she had made with her teeth last night. The purple tinted skin made Emi feel a sense of hunger, and she couldn't help the new love bites she was giving her girlfriend. Lin's gasps and moans made her bite harder, and Lin couldn't believe that this woman was taking pleasure in giving _her_ of all people love bites. With one final kiss, Emi pulled away. She tenderly licked the blood from her harder kisses in an apologetic way before getting out of bed. Lin had to smirk as Emi made her way to the bedroom door, and, in a teasing sort of way, walked into the living room of the apartment. Lin chuckled before getting up too.

They spent the rest of the morning doing nothing but eating breakfast, reading the newspaper, and playing Pai Sho. It was Lin's turn, and she was scratching her chin in thought. Emi took the time to look at Lin. She was now wearing a light green workout shirt that had snap fasteners all the way down the front with no sleeves, a pair of black sweatpants, and an emerald green ribbon of fabric around her waist. Emi smiled. She was reminded of how Kya, during her argument with Lin, said that Lin had no other clothes besides her uniform, which was false. Lin did have a wardrobe even if it was mostly workout clothes and it was all black, grey, or green. Emi loved when Lin was relaxed enough to put in the effort to wear something besides her uniform and her signature white tank top and uniformal dark grey sweatpants. When Lin was relaxed, Emi was relaxed.

"I win," Lin smirked as she placed a Pai Sho piece down on the board. Emi broke out of her trance, and looked down at the board. Lin had indeed won. Emi just stared at the board for a minute before looking up at a triumphant looking Lin. "What happened to you?" Lin asked with a laugh. "You were winning not even 60 seconds ago."

"I got distracted," Emi said truthfully before she went back to lovingly watching Lin. Lin just rolled her eyes.

"You need to go back to sleep," Lin said as she crossed her arms over her chest. "You obviously didn't get enough."

Just then the phone rang, and Lin pursed her lips together in annoyance.

"Once a month I get a day off," Lin grumbled as she got up from her chair. "Why can't I get a break?"

Emi just continued to watch her as Lin aggressively took hold of the phone, and lifted it up to her ear. "This is Chief Lin Beifong, who is this?" Lin asked into the receiver.

"Sorry for bothering you Chief, but it's Mako," Mako's voice could be heard through the phone. "Song told me it was your day off when I called the station, and needed to ask for your permission."

Emi, who could hear what Mako was saying over the phone from where she sat, saw Lin's pupils get smaller.

"Permission for what?" Lin asked with a harder tone of voice.

"As you know, Avatar Korra has been kicked out of the city, and she's preparing to leave. She and Tenzin are going out into the Earth Kingdom to search for new airbenders with my brother, Bumi, and one of Tenzin's kids in one of Asami Sato's airships, and they're asking me to come along. I was wondering if I could take a leave of absence for maybe a few weeks to a month?"

Emi could hear Mako's voice getting quieter and higher towards the end of his statement. Both her and Mako were waiting for Lin to start yelling, but it never came.

"You're lucky I'm in a good mood kid," Lin said, "But you know that you won't be paid when you're away."

"Oh of course Chief. Thank you. I'll be back as soon as possible."

"Fine by me," Lin said before putting the phone back on it's holder, hanging up. Emi just stared in amazement.

"I can't believe you didn't blow up," Emi said.

"Although I find his new vacation to be irritating, I'm in too good of a mood to ruin it through my own actions," Lin said before sitting on the couch, "And I can't find anyone better than him for his job, so it would be waste to get him scared to the point where he won't want to come back." Emi smiled as she got up from her chair, and joined her. She rested her head on Lin's shoulder, and Lin rested her head on Emi's.

"I love you," Emi whispered as she rubbed her cheek against Lin's shoulder.

"Where did that come from?" Lin asked.

"It's just the fact that you're never boring. You always surprise me."

"Well in that case, I love you too… for not being boring," Lin smiled.

Emi laughed before closing her eyes, and sighing.

"We should do something," Lin said randomly as she lifted her head.

"Okay," Emi said as she too lifted her head. "What do you want to do?"

"Something simple that doesn't cost that much money," Lin said, "Because you know with Raiko's mood swings we're almost broke."

"Our other officers are broke," Emi corrected. "Since we help each other, we've got twice the money that they get. But on a better note, we could go to your favorite restaurant downtown. I know it's a ways, but it's worth the walk and the money."

Emi remembered how she would walk all the way there and back when Lin was injured after Hiroshi Sato's attack on them in his secret factory underneath his giant mansion. She would walk to Ba Sing Se and back just to see Lin smile.

"If you want to, I'm all in for it," Lin smiled.

So that evening they went to the restaurant, ate a fantastic meal, and then walked around downtown for a bit. Emi had to stop at the candy store, but other than that they just walked, talked, and looked.

"I think that you would look great in this," Emi told Lin as they looked around a clothing store as she sucked on a lollipop. She was holding an emerald colored gown that was backless, thick shoulder straps, no sleeves, and a cut up the right side. It had shimmering, silver sequins along the left shoulder strap which then went into curls along the neckline which made it look like it had gotten blown in the wind. There was a silver ribbon tied around the waist that got knotted into a bow in the back. Lin took one look at the dress, and started laughing.

"The day I can actually pull off that dress is the day that I get a job more interesting than Chief of Police of Republic City," Lin chuckled into her hand.

"Laugh all you want, but I still think you would look good in this dress," Emi persisted before they exited the store.

"Do you just want to go home?" Lin asked.

"Sure, we can have some alone time," Emi smirked before giving Lin a wink.

The two metalbenders walked back to their condo, but they were surprised to see three White Lotus members right in front of the door to the building. Lin and Emi exchanged confused looks before addressing them.

"What seems to be the problem?" Lin asked them.

They all turned when hearing her voice, and you could see their faces visibly brighten.

"Are you Lin Beifong?" the first one asked.

"Yes?" Lin asked with a raised eyebrow. "Who wants to know."

"We were sent by Lord Zuko and Chief Tonraq," The second one said. "He told us to tell you to protect the Avatar at all costs."

"Why does the Avatar need protecting?" Emi asked, coming up to stand next to Lin. The White Lotus members looked suspiciously at Emi, and Lin growled quietly in her throat.

"Anything I know, she can know," Lin snarled. "She's trustworthy."

"Our apologies," The third one said, bowing her head with respect. "It's just that all White Lotus members are on high alert because Zaheer has broken out of prison."

"What?" Lin asked in shock. Emi started to get worried when she noticed Lin's face go three shades paler. "How?"

"He is an airbender now," The first one explained. "He has already gotten Ghazan and Ming Hua out of their respective prisons, and Lord Zuko believes that they are going after P'li next. The Avatar will be their next target, and Lord Zuko needs you to protect her."

"Who's Zaheer?" Emi asked.

"I'll explain as soon as I get all the information I need," Lin whispered before addressing the White Lotus members. "I would protect her, but she has been exiled from Republic City by President Raiko. I believe she is heading to Ba Sing Se from the latest reports."

"Well you need to find her, and bring her back," The first one said. "Before Zaheer finds her."

"We will leave first thing in the morning," Lin glowered. She wasn't up to taking orders from anyone that didn't deserve the authority. "But if you'll excuse us." She pushed past them into the building with Emi trailing behind her. Once they were in the elevator Emi asked again.

"So who's Zaheer?"

Lin sighed. "Do you know about the Red Lotus?"

"I believe so," Emi said. "We're they the ones who got imprisoned 13 years ago?"

"Yes," Lin said. "They were a team of four who went after Korra when we first realized she was the Avatar. She was probably only three at the time. They tried to kidnap her but were stopped and imprisoned. Zaheer is their leader, and he now has airbending. It took many master benders to take him down the first time, and he was a non-bender. I hate to think how much effort and skill is going to be needed to take him down this time."

"Wow, so he's really bad huh?" Emi asked as the got to the door of their condo. "Well, we better start packing."

"The latest report says that Korra is in Ba Sing Se as the Queen's personal guest. They're in one of the guest houses in the Upper Ring."

Emi was reading through the reports that Song had been grateful enough to give her this morning before she and Lin had taken off in one of the Police Airships. They had gotten to the Police Station at 5:30 to take one of the ships, but someone had seen them and tipped it off to Raiko. He came to the roof of the Station demanding why the Chief of Police and the second in command were leaving Republic City. He first accused them of having done something illegal, and they were just trying to flee. Lin, not being a morning person, had gone on a rant about how she and Emi were going to Ba Sing Se to help the Avatar because her life was in danger. She then proceeded to tell the President that Lord Zuko and Chief Tonraq had asked for her help personally, and if he wanted to stop their mission he would have to take it up with them. This was enough to make the President back down before the two officers departed. They had left Song in charge, and he had given her the reports upon their arrival at the Station.

"Hopefully they will let us in," Lin said. She was in the pilot's position, and Emi was sitting on a bench behind her. "I've heard that the Queen is not happy about Avatar Aang and Lord Zuko taking Earth Kingdom territory to make Republic City, and so a huge Airship that literally reads out the words _Republic City Police_ will not be welcomed with kind hearts."

"If anybody ever told you to not do something you wanted to do, I would feel some pity for them after they got beat to the bone," Emi chuckled. "No one says no to the great Lin Beifong."

Lin just rolled her eyes as they came up to the Ba Sing Se wall. Emi got up from her seat to look out the window in front of Lin.

"Oh wow," Emi gaped.

The city was circled by a huge wall that looked like it took ages to build even with earthbending. Outside the city was a desert, but inside the city was water, greenery, and lots of people. Emi could see the layers of the city from the air. She could see the upper ring with it's simmering palace, the middle ring that was bustling with merchants and shopkeepers that were wealthy enough to buy the occasional jewelry, and the poor lower class. Emi's heart sank as she looked down at the people who were living in garbage with only rags to wear. She could see children digging through trash piles, looking for food. She could see beggars on the streets with sunken faces from malnourishment, and nothing in their tip jars. It was simply awful.

"Oh those poor people," Emi said sorrowfully as they passed into the middle ring.

"The stench is even worse," Lin said. She too felt sorry for the people in the lower ring. "Most of them lose their sense of smell and sight by the time they hit 60, if they get that far."

"How can the Queen let that happen?" Emi asked in anger. "How can she just let them live in those conditions when she has vaults full of money?"

"Maybe because she uses that money on temples and gardens dedicated to her," Lin said as she pointed out the window. Lin was right. There were fountains, and lushes gardens, and multiple expensive buildings that were either newly finished or under construction. The upper ring looked like a utopia compared to the lower ring.

"Well, we definitely know she's selfish," Emi snarled. They flew to the docking port that was right in front of the huge Earth Kingdom palace that had stood tall for centuries. Lin and Emi were surprised when they let them dock the ship. Lin and Emi walked down the ramp, and were met by servant and two Dai Li agents. Emi though they were really creepy by the way that they covered their eyes with their circular, ancient, earthbending hats. Lin, however, having seen them before, was not fazed. She walked up to the servant, who gave her a low bow.

"It is an honor Chief Lin Beifong to welcome you to Ba Sing Se," the servant said.

"It is?" Lin asked as she crossed her hands over her chest.

"But of course," the servant said. "Any relative of the greatest earthbender in the world, especially her daughter, will be honored in the Earth Kingdom's capital. I hear that you are looking for the Avatar. Please follow me to the house they are staying in."

The servant turned around, and the Dai Li agents stepped aside to let them pass. After the two officers started to follow the servant, the Dai Li agents started to follow behind them. Emi kept a sharp eye on them before it hurt her neck to do so. She turned to Lin with a smirk instead.

"See," She whispered, "No one messes with Lin _Beifong_."

Lin rolled her eyes again before messing up Emi's hair playfully.

They walked through the many gardens and over bridges that went across man made rivers and streams full of exotic fish and plants of many colors before reaching an impressively big house that stood right in the middle of it all.

"If the Avatar is home, she will be in there," The servant said with another low bow, "You may contact us if you need anything."

With that he turned and left with the Dai Li agents following behind them. Emi glared suspiciously at the agents as they shielded their own suspicious gazes underneath their hats. After their eye contact was disrupted by a wall of a building and Emi made sure they were gone with her seismic sense, she turned to Lin.

"Everyone here is creeping me out," Emi said nervously. "Let's get out of here as soon as possible."

"Agreed," Lin said before knocking on the door. The two officers heard whispering and movement behind the closed door before it finally opened. They were met with the surprised face of Tenzin.

"Hi Airhead!" Emi greeted cheerfully.

"Emi, Lin, what're you doing here?" He asked with shock clear in his voice as Emi and Lin walked into the room and he closed the door behind them. Bolin, Korra, Bumi, Jinora, and Mako were also in the room looking just as surprised.

"Who were you expecting? A squirrel-toad?" Emi asked with a smirk.

"Something similar," Bolin said as he cringed.

Before Emi could ask who he was referring to, Lin got right down to business.

"We need to get Korra out of here immediately," She said as she crossed her arms over her chest and addressed Tenzin. "Her life's in danger."

"What?" Korra asked in alarm. "What's going on?"

"We just got word from Lord Zuko and Tonraq," Lin continued, ignoring the Avatar.

"Why is Lord Zuko with my dad?" Korra asked, persisting with her questions just as Emi had the night before. _Lin, stop ignoring her_, Emi thought, _I know you two don't get along very well, but at least try to be nice_.

"Zaheer and the others have escaped," Lin still continued to tell Tenzin.

"How is that possible?" Tenzin asked.

"Because Zaheer is an Airbender now," Lin told him.

"No…" He whispered in a kind of fear that Emi hadn't seen on his face in a while. Not since Amon at least. This guy must be really bad. _Ugh_, Emi thought, _here come more bruises to add to the collection_.

"Alright, hold on!" Korra yelled to finally get their attention. "Will you quit ignoring me, and tell me what's going on? Who's Zaheer? Why is my life in danger?"

"Okay so basically Zaheer is the leader of this group called the Red Lotus that is made up of four people including him," Emi explained really quickly. "They tried to kidnap you when you were little, but were beaten up in the process and sent to jail. Zaheer has now broken out of jail because he used to be a non-bender, but is now an airbender and he is supposedly trying to kill you. But I found this out for the first time last night, so I think that these people can explain it a little better."

"Yes that is basically the summary," Tenzin said with a glare in the young metalbenders direction. Emi just smiled back since was proud that she had gotten Tenzin angry by stealing his thunder. "The more detailed summary is that your father, Lord Zuko, Chief Sokka, and I stopped them before they could succeed, and we locked them away in jail cells made to impair their abilities."

"So that's why you guys sheltered me away," Korra realized.

"It was for your own safety," Tenzin confirmed.

"Why were they trying to kidnap Korra?" Mako asked as he walked up to stand next to Lin.

"We spent 13 years interrogating them, but they never broke," Lin told him. "To this day no one knows what their motive was." Lin then turned her attention to Korra again, and stepped forward. "Now we need to get you back to Republic City where we can protect you."

"No, I'm not running," Korra said with glaring eyes and a whole lot of stubborness.

"Korra, you need to listen to us," Emi butted in. "These criminals are highly dangerous, and will kill you on sight."

"They are nothing like you have faced before," Lin said with fire.

"Look, I'm not a little kid anymore," Korra continued stubbornly. "You don't need to protect me. I came here for one thing, to find airbenders, and I'm not leaving without them."

"Fine," Lin grumbled. "Let's get them, and get out of here. Where are they?"

"In a military compound, and we're busting them out," Korra answered.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5:**

**Sorry this took so long! Book 4 is moving at a horrendously slow pace, and I don't want to release too much of Book 3 without having even one half of Book 4 done. I hope you all have the patience to deal with my horrible planning because I sure am struggling. I'm also sorry this chapter is so long. It ended right at the perfect stopping place, and it would have been way too long for me to continue it. Also enjoy my Jurassic Park reference in the first line! But without further adieu, Chapter 5!**

"And we're back in an airship," Emi grumbled.

"It won't be for long," Lin said as she got back into her pilot seat. She was getting ready for any radio call from the others, who had gone into the Queen's Military compound. "Just until we get back to Republic City."

"I'm sure Korra has other ideas," Emi said as she sat back down on the bench where she had sat on the way here, and rested her chin in the palm of her hand. Lin knew that Emi didn't like being cooped up, but she also didn't want them to go into the military compound for two reasons. One, two high ranking Republic City Police officers sneaking into the Queen's Compound would send the entire wrath of the Earth Kingdom down on Republic City. Two, Lin didn't trust anyone, but herself and Emi, with her airship. Well, maybe she trusted Asami, but the non-bender was currently in the huge, Future Industries airship to their left, and was also getting ready for any incoming radio call.

"What do you mean by that?" Lin asked.

"I just mean that whenever we make a plan she always finds some way to change it in the end," Emi said, "Like we say we're going to go straight to Republic City, but in reality we're probably going to take a tour around the Earth Kingdom."

"Fair point," Lin agreed as her radio started to buzz with an incoming call. She picked up the walkie-talkie that was attached, and instantly heard Bumi's voice.

"Top Sight, this is Papa Bear," Bumi could be heard over the speakers making Emi laugh. "The Breezies are in the holes, que the balloons."

Lin looked perplexed for a minute before answering. "What? Are you in trouble?"

"No, we've got the airbenders, and we're coming out," Bumi answered in a disappointed voice. "Bring the airships."

"Copy that," Lin said, "Asami and I are on our way." Lin put the walkie-talkie back in its holder before flipping a couples switches to lift off. She had her back turned to Emi, but she could hear the fit of giggles that the metalbender was making after Bumi's call. Lin gave a small smile at how amusing she found it.

Lin directed her ship just above the temple waiting for the airbenders to come out. Emi got up from her seat, and looked out the window. She looked down at the supposed Temple, which really was the compound, that was under construction. She thought it looked extremely ugly, and she couldn't believe that someone would build such a thing. Emi narrowed her eyes as she looked closer. She could have sworn she saw a flash of green weaving its way through the metal bars that kept the unfinished structure stable. When she saw another, she immediately understood.

"I think we should fly back around in a circle instead of just sitting here," Emi told Lin.

"Why's that?" Lin asked.

"Because there are about 10 Dai Li Agents just creepily hiding on top of this building," Emi said, pointing down to the temple for emphasis.

"Oh great," Lin said sarcastically as she stirred the ship back around in a loop. "If we get arrested by the Dai Li, they will probably do some experiments on us or erase our memory. Did you ever get told the stories about how they used to brainwash their citizens so they knew nothing about the Fire Nation."

"Yep," Emi said with a shiver. "They used to keep me up at night. That's why I'm so on edge." Emi looked back at the Temple that was now a good ways away. She noticed that there seemed to be some hurricane of a wind current coming from a group of people dressed in cheap, green clothes. Emi was immediately reminded of when Mako called her about the airbender in Republic City, and how it sounded like a hurricane in the background.

"I think we can go back now," Emi said, pointing to the visible air currents. Lin nodded and turned the ship back around. She directed it right over the temple again, and they could now visibly see the commotion going on below. There looked to be 20 Dai Li agents that were being blown away from the Temple by a large group of Airbenders which included Tenzin, Korra, and Bumi. "I'm going to go down to the main hangar, and help them all up." Emi told Lin.

"Okay, be careful," Lin told her as Emi made her way to the ladder.

"When am I ever not?" Emi asked with a smirk as she slid down the sides of the ladder. Lin smiled and shook her head at her overconfidence as Emi made her way to the main hangar door switch. She pushed it down, and the hangar door slowly opened. She looked down to see that some of the airbenders were climbing up the structural support beams of the building while the rest were continuing to blow air in the Dai Li agents' faces. Emi bent out her cables, and snagged the first airbender she could reach. She lifted him up, and set him gentle on the floor of the airship.

"Thank you," he said as he fearfully took a hold of one of the safety bars. Emi nodded her head at him respectfully before helping the second airbender, and then the third. After Bumi was in the hangar and Emi had double checked that they had everyone, she yelled up to the main deck.

"We've got them all Lin, let's go!"  
Lin, upon hearing Emi's words, pushed the button to lock the hangar door, and pushed the acceleration switch forward. They started moving forward and up towards where Asami's ship was floating in the sky. Lin, through the window in front of her, saw Oogie fly down to Korra and Tenzin, who were still fighting Dai Li agents on the Temple. They jumped onto Oogie's back just as Dai Li Agents started hurling bigger rocks at them. Lin grabbed on to the nearest safety bar as the rocks bounced off the metal cover of the airship with enough force to shake anyone off their feet. Emi instructed the airbenders in the hangar to hang on as she too felt the ship shake.

Lin looked back out the window when she felt the tremors stop, and her eyes widened when she saw Mako, his brother, and those two airbending kids being flown into the air via earthbending. They landed on Oogie, and the flying bison flew away at full speed as not to get hit by upcoming rocks. Both Lin and Emi were happy to see Ba Sing Se disappear on the horizon.

After they all escaped and made sure they weren't being tracked, they stopped in a deserted town far out in the desert. Emi, after Lin had landed the ship, opened the now unlocked hangar door to let the airbenders out. They all gathered in front of Tenzin and Korra, while Bolin, Mako, and Asami came over to the two officers who were standing next to their ship.

"I know you're not going to like this Chief," Mako said, "But the plan as of right now is for Tenzin and the airbenders to take Asami's ship to the Northern Air Temple, and you to take us in your ship to find other airbenders. That's Korra's plan not mine."

Lin snarled before looking at Emi. "Looks like you were right about her changing things."

"She did technically say that she's not leaving without airbenders," Bolin countered.

"She meant that about the Queen's airbenders," Emi sighed.

"She could have meant she was not leaving the Earth Kingdom without finding all the airbenders," Bolin thought, "Or she could have meant she wasn't going to leave this life without finding every single last airbender in the world, but that would be a little bit of an exaggeration."

"Bro, stop," Mako whispered. "I'm sorry Chief, but I don't think there is a way that we're going to get out of this."

"Ugh," Lin groaned as she massaged her temples. She was starting to get these brainspliting headaches, and this new change of plan wasn't helping. Emi looked at her with concern before she spoke again. "She better make this quick, or we're all going to be out of a job." She turned around and stormed up the ramp, and into the airship's main hangar. Emi gave a reassuring smile to Mako, Bolin, and Asami before they all followed her in.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6:**

**Yes, I'm not dead. Yes, I've been working on Book 4. No, it is not going as fast as I would have hoped, but it's getting there. It is definitely going to be emotional, but that's all I'm giving up so don't ask for spoilers! You don't even know what's going to happen at the end of this book yet *laughs ****maniacally*. Please leave reviews! I love hearing things from people who actually enjoy the things that I write. But without further adieu, Chapter 6!**

"Isn't this place just beautiful?" Emi asked Lin as the Chief of Police metalbent the last landing cable into the ground. The mountainous valley they had taken refuse in was perfectly illuminated by the sun, and made one reconsider the troubles of life.

"I would actually take the time to look around if I wasn't so preoccupied by the fact the most dangerous criminals in the world are after us," Lin said grumpily. Just then another wave of pain hit her. Lin doubled over in agony, and clutched her head with her hands. Emi ran over to the fallen in metalbender, and put a hand on her shoulder.

"You need to get that looked at Lin," Emi told her girlfriend. "I think it's getting worse."

"I'm fine," Lin growled as she got up on one knee, and Emi helped her the rest of the way up. "I just need to walk it off." Emi looked at her without any reassurance before she continued her girlfriend's job of putting landing cables into the earth to ground the Police Airship. Lin had been having these headaches since Korra had been put into her protection. Emi worried that Lin was pushing herself too hard, and was becoming overstressed.

"Woah!" Emi cried as Naga the polar bear dog ran out of the Airship and pushed past her. She fell to the ground, but was immediately helped back up by Korra.

"Sorry about that," Korra said, "She was just dying to get out of that ship."

"Weren't we all?" Emi said as Bolin too came out of the airship holding what appeared to be a brown, leather ball.

"Why exactly did you ask me to get this?" Bolin asked the Avatar.

Korra laughed before taking the ball, and airbending it out into the field that was in front of them. Naga immediately zoomed after it, and caught it in her mouth. She brought it back, and set it at Korra's feet. The Avatar then airbent the ball again, and Naga zoomed after it.

"Oh, got it," Bolin said. "Fetch."

"Well while you're playing fetch," Lin said as she came over to them. "Four of the most dangerous criminals in the world are hunting you down. We should get moving."

"Relax," Korra said with a smile. "We just got here. Besides no one knows where I am right now except us."

Naga just then came back with the ball, and dropped it at Lin's feet.

"I think she wants you to throw it for her," Korra giggled.

Emi giggled as well as Lin looked down at the ball in disgust before looking back up. "I'll pass, thanks," She said as she narrowed her eyebrows.

"I'll do it," Emi laughed before picking up the ball. Emi threw it a couple of feet into the air before punting it all the way across the field. Naga immediately went spiriting after it, and Bolin looked on with a surprised widening of his eyes.

"How did you do that?" He asked.

"You put all your anger into the kick," Emi stated. "It's actually very therapeutic. I learned how to do it playing ball with my neighborhood friends as a kid. We would always get something round, like perhaps an unwanted cabbage, and start kicking it around until there was nothing left to kick. The one who kept possession longest won. I found that kicking it far away, and then spiriting after it was the easiest way to win because only if someone else touched it would you lose possession."

"That sounds like fun," Bolin commented. "I wish Mako and I grew up in a nice neighborhood like that, but we had no such luck living on the streets and all."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean…" Emi tried to apologize but was cut off.

"No it's fine. Don't apologize," Bolin said. "It's nice to hear something positive when negativity always seems to be chasing us."

"Those are some very wise words Bolin," Emi laughed.

"Why thank you!" Bolin said, mocking a very elegant accent.

The group turned when the heard two new sets of feet walking out of the ship.

"We just got a call on the radio about another airbender," Asami said.

"Finally, where are they?" Korra asked.

"A city called Zaofu," Mako answered. "Home of the Metal Clan."

Emi saw Lin instantly flinch when she heard the word _Zaofu_. Emi gave her a confused look before Korra addressed the Chief.

"You know the place?" She asked her.

"Ahh… never been," Lin said with slight hesitation. "But I don't want you going there. I would rest a lot easier if you were back safe in Republic City."

"Sorry, but if there is an airbender in Zaofu, then that's where we're going next," Korra said as she, Bolin, Asami, and Mako walked back onto the ship. That left Lin, Emi, and Naga still outside. Emi picked up the polar bear dog's ball, and turned to Lin before going into the ship herself.

"What's wrong with Zaofu?" Emi asked her girlfriend. "Easily broken into? High rate of robbers? Not safe at all?"

"No, it's pretty safe," Lin said before turning to go into the ship. "It's just that the matriarch of the Metal Clan is my half-sister."

"Wait, what?" Emi asked as she shut the hangar door behind her. They walked up onto the main deck where Emi asked Asami to take the wheel. She and Lin sat down on one of the plush benches on the deck. "You mean the sister you haven't seen in decades?"

"Yep," Lin said, "But let's talk about it later when there's not so many people around."

Emi nodded before sitting back on the bench. Naga came over with Pabu on her head. She rested her head on Emi's lap, and Emi gave her a rub behind the ears. Pabu climbed up Emi's arm to rest on her shoulders.

"You look like you're a zoo," Lin raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not complaining," Emi laughed as she gave Pabu a little scratch on the head, "It's all nice and warm because it comes from animal love, which is the purest form of love." Lin scoffed at her statement, but there was still a humorous smile on her face. They flew for what felt like hours before Bolin gave a cry of excitement.

"Wow! Wow! Wow!" He exclaimed as he pressed his face up to the window. Emi gently lifted Naga's head and got up from her seat to look out the window too. Even though Zaofu was leaving an awful taste in her mouth since Lin didn't like it, Emi couldn't help but gaze in amazement at the city. It was all made of metal with skyscrapers jutting out of what looked to be huge, metal lotus flowers that all sat at the base of the mountain range behind them. There were multiple of these flower like structures that all held building, and were all connected by train tracks. The biggest one was right in the middle, and it seemed to connect all the flowers into a web. Emi looked over this portion of the city to the flower in the far back that basically cut into the mountain. It was one of the smaller ones, but it was basically all just one building. Emi guessed that was where Lin's sister lived. "An entire city made of metal," Bolin continued to rant excitedly. He then turned to the angry Chief of Police. "You should feel right at home Beifong."

Lin gave an uninterested "hmm" at Bolin's comment, and Emi came back to sit next to her.

"We'll be in and out as fast as possible, I promise," Emi told her before giving her a kiss to the cheek. Lin would never admit it out loud, but Emi's kisses did actually help her feel better.

Asami brought the airship around into Zaofu's port where there apparently were people waiting for them. Metalbending guards in Zaofu uniforms bent out cables to bring the ship to a stop, and they bent out a staircase for them to walk down. Bolin ran to the door, and Korra, Mako, and Asami walked. Lin didn't move a muscle, so before they got out Asami asked:

"Aren't you coming?"

"What's there to see?" Lin asked with narrow eyebrows. "It's metal. Big whoop. Just find the airbender, and let's get moving. And don't tell anyone I'm here."

"Why not?" Korra asked.

"I don't need to explain myself to you," Lin raised her voice impatiently. "Just do as I say."

"Fine," Korra huffed. "You got it Chief Cranky-Pants."

With that the group of four friends left the ship, and were greeted by someone Emi was able to catch was named Aiwei before closing the door to the airship. She made sure no one had seen her do it, so the Avatar wouldn't come off as a liar. She then came back, and sat down on the bench again. Naga rested her head on her lap again, and Pabu curled himself back around Emi's neck, and closed her eyes. Emi rubbed the polar bear dogs head affectionately.

"So you're sister runs this place huh?" Emi asked. "Can I ask what happened?"

"Like you said, I have not seen Suyin in years," Lin said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Our relationship ended on a very sour note." Lin pointed to the two harsh, but Emi thought were sexy, scars on her right cheek. Emi ran her fingers over them before Lin spoke. "She gave me these."

Emi's eyes widened before gentle retracting her hand. "Did she do it on purpose?"

"No, but I knew she wanted to from the get go," Lin said, a scowl crawling across her face. "She had been apart of a robbery with the Terra Triad because she wanted to be a rebellious teenager. She had been the getaway driver, and I was a B-cop back then so I was the one who caught their car. I tied up her supposed _friends_, but she tried to walk away like it was no big deal. I caught her with my cables, but she sliced the cables off. They came back, and whipped me across the face."

Emi saw the pain that came with this memory in Lin's eyes. This was followed by actual pain with another one of her agonizing headaches. Emi rubbed Lin's back as the metalbender leaned over into her lap from the pain. After the Chief groaned and lifted her head back up, Emi asked:

"But your mother must have punished her for it. I mean wasn't she the Chief of Police back then. Did she give her a couple of nights in a jail cell or something."

By the look Lin was giving the floor, Emi guessed the answer wasn't going to be as good as she had hoped.

"Nope," Lin said with frustration, "She ripped up the arrest report, and just sent Suyin away to live with our grandparents in their mansion in the Earth Kingdom. I haven't seen her since. Mom didn't punish her for breaking the law or for ruining my face!"

Emi could see the tears brimming at the edges of Lin's eyes and the cracking of her voice. Emi took a hold of Lin's chin, and planted a kiss on her scared cheek. She pressed her forehead to the side of Lin's head.

"I know it sounds like I'm taking her side, which I'm not, but you're face is not ruined," Emi whispered. "I've never seen a face so beautiful, or a woman so courageous. You liven my world Lin, and I'll be with you to the very end."

"Thank you," Lin said as she closed her eyes and let a single tear fall. Lin and Emi immediately pulled apart when they felt the vibration of metal against metal through the floor of the airship. They both got up, and headed over to the window. Emi groaned in disappointment when she saw Korra, Mako, Asami, and Bolin walking out of the elevator to the top section of the port with a woman following them. Emi couldn't see her very well at such a distance, but by the way Lin growled and rested her head against her arm on the window the Captain of the Republic City Police Department could guess who it was. That was Suyin Beifong… and she was coming their way.

"Better get it over with sooner rather than later," Emi placed a hand on Lin's shoulder. "But she'll have to get past me if she wants to hurt you again."

Lin nodded as the door to the airship opened. Lin kept facing the window, but Emi turned and stood her ground like a flying boar ready to charge. Korra came in first, but was then followed by the supposedly younger Beifong. She actually was strikingly similar to Lin.

She had the same shade of grey in her hair, the same stance when she stopped walking, and the same colored eyes. Bright green, but Emi wasn't fooled. This wasn't Lin, and Lin didn't like this stranger so neither did she.

Suyin was wearing a light green shirt that had baggy sleeves and only went down to her elbows with a collar that rode up her neck. This shirt was tucked into a black belt, and below the belt were baggy sweatpants that were the same color as the shirt. All of this was covered by a dark green robe that only came together over her chest, and had no sleeves. It had sharper cut around the shoulders, and the neckline was covered by a huge necklace of metal plates. Similar metal plates were connected to the armbands that went up her forearm, and these armbands were the same green as the shirt and pants. The last thing that completed her appearance was a thin band of silver around her head that went underneath her hair. A jewel of light green was connected to this band that was positioned in the center of her forehead. She looked like she was a politician about to run a marathon. Like she was always running somewhere, chasing something. Emi had a couple of encounters with insane dreamchasers that chased after a goal that gave them power (such as the ability to take away someone's bending or to have a great connection with the spirits), but that ended up leading them to their death. Emi narrowed her eyes at her menacingly.

"I found out why you were so against coming here," Korra told Lin, who unwillingly turned away from the window. "Why didn't you ever tell me you had a sister?"

"Half-sister," Lin snarled.

"Same mom, different dads," Suyin explained in a voice that was slightly rough like Lin's, but higher pitched. "So what? We're blood Lin, and after 30 years the least you could do is say hello."

Lin scowled before turning back to the window. "I have nothing to say to you."

"You guys haven't spoken in 30 years?" Korra asked in surprise. "How come?"

"Ask her," Suyin said, pointing to Lin. "I've tried."

"Oh don't put that on me," Lin growled. "You're the one who tore our family apart."

"And you've done a bang up job keeping it that way," Suying smirked.

"I figured out who you remind me of," Emi butted in making both Beifongs look at her. She had a similar smirk to Suyin's on her face, and Lin knew she was up to something. What that was she didn't know, "You remind me of the Earth Queen."

"What?" Suying cried, clearly offended. "I don't even know you. What gives you the authority to insult a matriarch in such ways."

"Well I know it's not illegal, that's for sure," Emi countered, her smirk staying firmly on her face. "The name's Emilia. Captain in the Republic City Police Department, and second in command to Chief Beifong."

"And you think you're so tough, huh?" Suyin asked, jabbing a finger at the younger woman. "Well you didn't raise an entire city from scratch, did you?"

"Did you lose your bending and your most prized city in a matter of months?" Emi challenged with a raised eyebrow, "Have you ever felt the fear I have when I saw the love of my life literally go down with a ship? Did you have to grow up with three identical brothers who continue to gang up on you even though they are all adults?"

"I had to be raised with this one," Suyin said, pointing to Lin, "So I got worse."

"I feel bad for Lin," Emi mocked, surprising everyone present with how calm she was being. "Because I can barely stand you. You are just like the Earth Queen because you continue to bring the conversation back to yourself." Emi imitated Suyin's voice. "_I'm_ a matriarch, _I _raised an entire city from scratch, _I _had to be raised with the most wonderful woman in the world."

"Do you want to be thrown out of this city because I can assure you I can do it," Suyin growled.

"There you go back to the _I can do this, I can do that_," Emi mocked as their scowling faces got closer together. Lin pushed Suyin back away from Emi, and Emi looked at Lin questioningly. Suyin was about to say something, but Lin cut her off.

"She knows about what happened 30 years ago Su," Lin frowned. "She has context."

"Oh… that makes more sense," Su said. Emi witnessed a spark of regret fly through Suyin's gaze before it was gone again. "I thought she was reading a book by its cover. But that doesn't explain by she's being so defensive."

"She's my girlfriend," Lin's frown got deeper, and Emi was still narrowing her eyes suspiciously at the matriarch. Su's eyes grew visibly wider.

"This is your girlfriend?!" Su asked in astonishment with a laugh. "I underestimated you Lin. I thought Tenzin was the best you could get."

"Well, that's not the first time you've thought wrong, now is it," Lin growled, and Emi too showed her teeth in a snarl.

"Come on now, look. We can sit here arguing about the past all day, but that's not the reason the Avatar came here," Su said before turning to Korra. "My daughter is thrilled to meet you."

"Lin's an Aunt?" Emi asked in confusion,but she was drowned out by Korra.

"Lin your niece is a new airbender," Korra smiled. "Isn't that amazing?"

"Yeah terrific," Lin said sarcastically.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7:**

**I truly enjoyed writing these scenes! I fell in love with Su's section of the Beifong family as soon as I saw them on the show for the very first time. All of Su's children immediately found a place in my heart, but, as you will soon see, Huan as a special with me. Even though he is not my favorite, that honor goes to Lin obviously, I found joy in expanding his personality and the possibilities of his character development. I feel like he was not appreciated enough and underused in the show, so I gave him a bigger part in my story. Here's an extra long update for my extra amazing fans! You can also thank a ****_guest_**** who posted a review to this story the other day for this update. Their words really hit home, and it just goes to prove that reviews do make a difference, so I say again that review are always welcome, always appreciated, and always read. Their hasn't been a review I haven't read yet! But without further adieu, Chapter 7!**

After talking with Lin and Emi for a bit, Team Avatar convinced them to come with them on their tour of the Beifong Estate, which was the lotus flower, that Emi found out was actually a dome that closed around the entire portion of the city that stood upon it, that was in the far back and melted into the mountains. Once they were all on the train, which also included Naga and Pabu, and were moving through all the domes, Emi walked over to Korra.

"How did she find out that Lin was here?" Emi asked Korra, and she was obviously referring to Suyin. Korra looked a little uneasy as she answered her question.

"Don't get mad at us," Korra whispered so that Su, who was looking out the window of the train car towards the front, couldn't hear them. "We didn't tell her willingly. There is this guy called Aiwei, who is apparently her right hand man…"

"Oh, he's the one who picked you up at the elevator, right?" Emi asked, remembering the tall man with the balding, white hair, the light green and yellow robes, green spectacles, and the weird, gold piercing that went from his nose to his ear.

"Yep, that's him," Korra confirmed. "Anyways, he is apparently a Truth-Seer, so he noticed when I was lying about our numbers."

"Well that makes two of us," Emi said popping her knuckles as she tapped her truth seeing feet against the metal floor. "_We_ can't have any secrets, _they _can't have any secrets."

"I like that plan," Korra smiled. "The less confusion the better."

After getting off the train, the group followed Suyin on a winding path around the mansion of a building that she called home. Apparently she had quite a few children which was why she had entire lotus flower island to herself. "They need room to grow" is what she said as they came to a small, metal stadium. Emi could hear the clanking of kicked metal, and could feel the vibrations of stomping feet on metal ground. They came to a stop in front of an arena in the ground that was the stadium's center of attention. Emi looked down to see three thick, short metal poles coming out of the oval shaped arena. There were goals at each end, and a disc of metal being kicked between the poles and the sides of the arena by the two young men at each end. Emi was surprised to see that these two men were identical in appearance, and were probably twins. She turned to tell Lin her finds, but noticed that she wasn't next to her anymore. She turned around in a full circle before her eyes rested on the uncomfortable, angry Chief of Police. She sighed at the stubborn woman, who was standing next to Naga and Pabu at the very back of the group, and she wasn't as interested as Emi when it came to the weird sport below. Emi motioned for Lin to come over, but Lin just shook her head and glared. Emi rolled her eyes before directing her attention to Su as she spoke.

"Those are my two youngest: Wei and Wing," She explained. "They're playing a game called Power Disc. They invented it all on their own."

"This looks like fun," Emi commented as the one named Wing kicked the disc at his brother, but it was then knocked back out of his reach and into the goal. A buzzer and light flashed above the goal signaling a point scored for Wei.

"Oh nice power Wei!" Su called to her son as Wing punched the ground in defeat.

"Wing goes down!" Wei taunted his brother, who gave a grunt of frustration.

"I'm so proud of those two," Su said before looking at Emi. "And this game _is _fun! I've played it a couple of times myself and always come out with some bruises, but if you like competition, then this is your game."  
They continued to walk around the back of the estate. They climbed some stairs, which went up to a stone shelf that had been carved right out of the mountain. Upon the shelf were beautifully carved, decorative pillars that kept people from falling off the tall shelf around the perimeter. Once they got up to the top of the stairs, they saw that the whole surface was covered in chunks and strips of metal. To the average person it looked like someone had decided not to clean up after a metalbending fight, but to Emi it was the studio of a sculpter. True to her words, she heard the sound of carefully bent metal ahead. Another young man, who was wearing the traditional Metal Clan robes, had a piercing on his left eyebrow, and had the left side of his head shaved off while the rest of his hair was very long, was looking and bending a sculpture of metal that he had fused and molded together.

"Huan," Su told her second oldest son. "I want you to meet the Avatar and her friends, and your Aunt Lin and her girlfriend."

"Nice to meet you," Korra gave a friendly greeting.

"Hey…" Huan said in a voice that spoke disinterest, and he kept his back turned to them. "Wait." He did then turn around when he seemed to realize something. "Did you say girlfriend?"

"Yep, that's me," Emi said, coming forward. "My names Emilia, but most people call me Emi. Is there a problem with being your aunt's girlfriend?"

"No, no, no! Of course not," Huan said, showing more energy than anyone had seen so far. "It's just…" He trailed off, and Emi, understanding, walked over to him. She leaned down, so that no one could see her lips.

"You're gay too, huh?" She whispered.

"Yeah," He confessed. "But please don't tell my mom."

"It's nothing to be ashamed of," Emi assured him.

"I'm not ashamed, trust me," he said. "I do have a boyfriend, but I'm just not ready for my family to know just yet."

"Fair enough. My lips are sealed." Emi said before giving him a wink.

She stepped back towards Lin, and noticed Su's suspicious gaze on her.

"What did you tell him?" she asked.

"I was just complimenting his sculpture," Emi lied, gesturing to the work he was crafting.

"Yeah, wow, that's a very nice banana?" Bolin almost asked because he wasn't exactly sure.

"It's not a banana Bolin," Emi corrected. "It's expressing the combining but combative power of Harmonic Convergence. Am I right?"

"Ahh, yeah," Huan said, surprised that someone knew anything about his art. "My inspiration _was _Harmonic Convergence. It represents the dawning of a new age." he then turned to Bolin with a glare. "Obviously."

"Oh right, I can see that now," Bolin lied before turning confused, but impressed, eyes to Emi. Emi just smirked, and turned to leave with everyone else. She waved to Huan as she left, and she was happy to see a ghost of a smile on his lips. Once they were far enough away that Huan couldn't hear them, Bolin and Su turned to Emi at the same time.

"How did you know that?"

Su and Bolin looked at each other in shock at their unified thoughts, and Emi just laughed.

"He's my son, and I've never been able to understand his sculptures," Su frowned as she continued. "How did you know? Did he just tell you during that little, weird, secretive talk you had?"

"No," Emi said truthfully. "My mom's an artist, and even though she's a firebender, not a metalbender, she still makes sculptures. I've grown up understanding the full value represented in objects created by delicate and intelligent hands." Su, satisfied with the answer, turned away and began leading them around the estate again as they came off the stairs.

"What _were _you talking to him about during that secretive talk?" Lin whispered to Emi as they trailed behind the group.

"The poor thing is secretly gay, Lin," Emi said. " I was just giving him a little comfort by telling him he wasn't the only one."

"Oh got it," Lin said before they started to walk across a small bridge that extended over a small, crystal blue stream that ran through the garden. Emi saw Lin roll her eyes at it and she smirked.

"You've got to hand it to your sister," Emi giggled. "She sure can decorate."

Lin just grunted a reply as they walked up to a girl who was sitting on a stone bench next to said stream. She had black hair, the same as her brothers, was wearing traditional green robes with her own metal necklace and white sweatpants (similar to Zaofu's matriarch), and was reading a book.

"And this is my daughter, Opal," Su said, gesturing to the young girl.

"Wow, Avatar Korra," Opal said in amazement as she turned her head to face them. She got up from her seat, put her book down, and rushed over. "I can't believe you're really here. You are so amazing!"

"It's great to meet you Opal," Korra said with a smile.

"Opal, that's a beautiful name," Bolin said as he extended his hand out for a friendly handshake.

"Thanks," Opal said with a blush as he took his hand.

"I'm Bolin."

"Opal," Opal said before blushing even harder. "But you already knew that."

Emi had to laugh into her hand at the awkward silence that came between the newly found lovebirds. Bolin tried to look like he was looking at the mountains around them while Opal just stared at him.

Lin suddenly stepped forward at a silent speed, and Emi jogged to keep up with her.

"Great. We found the airbender," Lin said as she came to stop next to Opal, Su, Bolin, and Korra. "Let's take her back to the airship and get out of here."

"Easy Lin," Emi smiled. "We'll get out of here as soon as we can."

"And the woman apparently trying to abduct you is your Aunt Lin," Su raised an eyebrow. "And the one stopping her is her girlfriend Emilia."

"Really?" Opal asked as she looked up at Lin with wide eyes. "I've always wanted to meet you. My mom has told me so many stories about you."

"I'm sure she has," Lin snarled, and turned away. Emi, when she saw Opal's heartbroken look, stepped forward.

"Excuse my girlfriend's attitude, she hasn't had her old lady nap today," Emi smirked making everyone around laugh as she extended her hand out to Opal.

"Hey," Lin said, offended. "I'm not that much older than you."

Emi ignored her before saying: "I'm Emilia, but just call me Emi."

"Nice to meet you," Opal said as she shook her hand. Emi then turned, and gave Lin a kiss on the cheek before whispering.

"It was only a joke. You hurt her feelings, and I was just livening up the mood."

Lin just turned away, and glared at a nearby bush. Emi just gave a sigh of defeat before she turned back to Su when the matriarch started talking yet again.

"So I've set all of you up in the guest houses while Korra trains Opal."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Korra said. "But I was hoping she could train with the rest of the airbenders at the Northern Temple."

"That sounds amazing," Opal said happily, but she was shot down by her mother.

"Nonsense," Su said with a flick of her wrist. "This is where Opal's home and family are. You can train her here."

"I guess I could help her get started," Korra smiled.

Emi saw the muscles in Lin's neck start to tighten, and knew they were in for a yelling.

"Absolutely not," Lin butted in harshly. "We're leaving!"

"She's just a little worried because there are some crazy criminals after Korra," Emi explained while rubbing Lin's arm to loosen her muscles.

"If you're concerned about security don't be," Su assured them. "This is the safest city in the world."

Lin rolled her eyes at this, and Emi knew why. Su had unintentionally insulted Lin because said older woman had worked almost her entire life to ensure the safety of Republic City, and Su saying her city was the safest only made her grumpier.

"Now I'll see you all at dinner," Su continued before starting to walk away. "And come hungry. My chef will blow the taste buds right out of your mouth."

After Su was out of sight, Korra turned to Lin.

"Why do you have such a problem with your sister? She seems nice," Korra said making Lin turn her glare on her. "Come on, we can stay a little while."

Lin gave a "grrrr" in response, but she knew she wasn't going to be able to change the stubborn Avatar's mind. She and Emi decided to check out those guest houses Su talked about earlier. With a little help from some of Suyin's personal guard, which Lin mocked about how unorganized they were, they made it to the house they were supposed to be in. The houses were all in a row, and were right next to Suyin's mansion. Their house was right in the middle of the row. Emi walked in first, and looked around. Lin came in next, and shut the door. She noticed that all the decorum in the room was either very expensive or very showy or both. The first room was a living room with a couch, chair, rug, table, and cupboard. Emi had walked into one of the two rooms that connected to the room. It was a bedroom with nice bedsheets, a chest of drawers, and another cupboard. Emi bent off her uniform and put it inside, but not before taking out the robes that were in there already. She set them on the bed, and looked them over. They were like the robes that Emi had seen the Metal Clan civilians wearing all day, and were equipped with the metal necklaces and bracelets too. Emi knew that she wanted to wear at least one before leaving.

Lin opened the second door which was a bathroom that was almost as big as the living room. She just rolled her sister's need to be a show off before closing the door. Emi put the robes on the chest of drawers so that the wouldn't get crushed by her uniform or dirty from something else, and walked back into the living room. Lin was there, and was sitting in the chair reading a newspaper. Emi noticed the box of old newspapers next to the chair, and sighed. She knew that Lin wouldn't be reading something outdated unless she wanted to look like she wasn't doing something or because she needed something to look at that wasn't the person she was mad at. Emi took a hold of the top of the newspaper and pulled it down, so that Lin was forced to look at her.

"What did I do?" Emi asked.

"You said you weren't taking her side," Lin growled.

"I haven't taken Su's side Lin," Emi told her as she tried to calm her down. "Whatever made you think that?"

"You are making friends with all her children."

"I like making friends, and besides it's not like they're evil or something. They're just kids."

"They're _her _kids," Lin shot back as she threw the newspaper on the floor, and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Lin, I'm still very suspicious of your sister, but her children are not the people who scared your face. Opal seemed really excited to meet you, and I had to come in and fix your mistake when you hurt her feelings. Those children may be from her womb, but they have not made the same mistakes that Suyin has. Give them a chance, and you might be surprised."

"The last person that ever surprised me was you when you wanted to date me. I've seen a lot of things in my years, and unfortunately betrayal is one of them."

"Oh come on Lin! They're just kids!" Emi repeated with slight frustration. "Plus I'm a Truth-Seer you know! If any of them lied, I would have known about it. Su never lied when she talked about how proud or how much she loved her children. I think she actually has changed from that law-breaking thief you grew up with Lin."

Emi suddenly went into her defensive stance when she felt the ground slightly shake. Lin felt it too, and the two officers ran to the door. Emi's eyes widened when she saw what was causing the ground to shake.

"Oh wow," Emi gaped as the huge, lotus like dome petals lifted, and encased themselves around the estate like it was a flower going to sleep. Emi got a tiny glimpse of the sky outside before it closed. She could see small stars starting to pop up in the sky. "Oh gosh, what time is it?"

"I don't know. Late evening?" Lin guessed.

"That's helpful," Emi said sarcastically. "Come on! We're going to be late for dinner."

"Why did you take your uniform off?" Lin asked. Everyone was there, which included all of Su's children that they had met so far, Korra, and her friends. Emi had encouraged Lin to sit next to her sister when Su's husband was absent. It had taken a bit of coaxing, but Lin eventually gave in. Lin was now sitting at the top of the table with Su and Korra. Emi sat to Lin's right and Opal to her left. Bolin, Mako and Asami were on Opal's left, and Huan, Wei, and Wing were on Korra's right along the other side of the table. Lin had her arms crossed, and was glaring at Emi, who was in her white tank top, grey sweatpants, and metal boots.

"Because I've had it on for the past couple days, and I needed to take it off," Emi answered Lin's question as, what she guessed to be, servants came in with their individual trays of food. "I was starting to boil alive in that thing."

Lin didn't reply, but instead chose to glare at the table. Emi just rolled her eyes at Lin's little tantrum before a large, long, black bearded man came into the room with a chef uniform on. He wore a bandana, had multiple tattoos on his arms, and many piercings on his ears and face. Emi guessed he had been in some kind of barbarian band or triad some time in his past.

"Tonight for your dining pleasure," he began in a deep, gruff voice. "I present a seared, wild kyoshi elephant coi paired with a ginger infused pea tendril and a hibiscus root salad."

"Stunning," Su complimented before the Chef bowed to her and started to walk out of the room. Emi looked down at the dish in confusion. She hadn't understood anything that guy had said, which left her on edge. She didn't like anything she didn't understand. Interrogating a Triad leader, easy, jumping off a 20 story building and landing without a scratch, she could do it in her sleep, but cooking was something she could never do. Emi shrugged. If they put it in front of you with silverware and the servant wasn't a mastermind criminal, it was probably safe to eat.

Emi put a chopstick amount in her mouth, and was blown away with how strong but how good it tasted. It was very rich food, and probably highly expensive, but Emi knew she could eat all of it in ten seconds if she wasn't worried about being polite.

Lin, on the other hand, didn't even move to pick up her utensils. She was still glaring at the table like it was to blame for her being there. She looked up however when she heard extra footsteps.

Just as the Chef was leaving, a man walked in front of the door. The Chef bowed to him before walking down the hall, so Lin guessed this was her brother-in-law. He had a head full of health hair that was greying towards his ears, a short beard, the same style of robes as everyone else, and rectangle shaped glasses that hung on his nose. He nodded to the Chef before speaking to his wife.

"Sorry dear, I'm going to have to take dinner in my officer," He said just as a young man ran up to his side with so many papers in his hands that some of them were flying behind him as he ran. He looked strikingly similar to the Su's husband, so she guessed he was another son. The only thing different was that this new young man had hair that was uniformal color (black), and had round glasses. He even had the beard perfectly right. He raised an eyebrow upon seeing the extra people in the dining room before his father continued speaking. "I just had a major break through on the tram station remodel."

"Well don't let me stand in the way of inspiration," Su smiled.

He smiled back before running down the hall again. "You're the best!" He called over his shoulder as he ran.

"That was my brilliant architect of a husband Baatar and our oldest son," Su explained. "He engineers all my husband's projects."

"Five kids, what a nightmare," Lin frowned at the far wall. Emi smacked the outside of Lin's shoulder, and gave her a death glare. "What?!" Lin asked defensively.

"No, my children are a blessing," Su smiled as she took a bit of food with her thumb and index finger and placed it in her mouth.

"Yeah, mom used to say that too, but she never meant it," Lin crossed her arms over her chest, and looked back down at the table. Su turned to give Lin her own glare, and Emi looked between the two with a sad expression. She had to get them to talk somehow. Thankfully Bolin came in to break the tense silence. He took a bite of the food himself before talking.

"I got to say I was a little skeptical when he said _pea _tendril, but this is delicious."

Opal giggled at his enthusiasm. "I know right! I don't think I've ever had a bad meal in my life."

Emi smiled at them before eating some more. At least they were getting along. Emi eavesdropped on their cute conversation for a while before Su turned to Korra.

"So how is your search for the new Airbenders going?" She asked.

"Honesty, not great," Korra frowned. "We has to rescue a whole group of them from the Earth Queen."

"Oh she's awful! She thinks she can just do whatever she wants!" Suyin cried. Emi was blown back by how passionate Su was about hating the Earth Queen, especially considering her city was built on the Queen's land. Emi realized that Su must have actually been really affected by Emi calling out her similarities to the Queen.

"Sounds familiar," Lin grumbled under her breath after she took a drink from the cup that was in front of her. Apparently Su had good ears because she turned towards her sister with a suspicious look.

"What?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing," Lin said a little to quickly, so you didn't need to be a Truth-Seer to know she was lying. She sent her cup back down, and leaned back in her chair.

"I mean the idea of even having a Queen is so outdated, don't you agree Korra?" Su asked the Avatar, and Emi was glad she had chosen to let Lin's lie slide.

"I haven't really thought about it too much," Korra answered truthfully.

"Well you should start. The world is evolving, and the Earth Queen can evolve with it. Step aside," Su said with a flick of her wrist. Emi lowered her head and cringed. If there was one thing Lin hated, it was sass.

"Hey everyone, my little sister is an expert on world affairs now," Lin placed her arms on the table, and Emi could see that Lin's strong emotions were causing the metal table to crumble in on itself. Emi quickly bent the table back into shape, and hoped no one noticed how much Lin's feelings were unprofessionally getting out of hand.

"You want to talk about what's really bugging you because I'm right here!" Su yelled back at her. Emi sighed a breath of relief when Lin didn't strangle her sister. She instead decided to start glaring again, but this time at the far wall. Emi gave her a smile that she hoped she would see, but Lin either didn't see it or chose to ignore it.

"Sorry we're late everyone."

Emi's eyes widened in uttermost surprise. She knew that voice too well, and she wished she didn't. This was finally going to drive Lin over her emotional edge…

"Varrick!" Bolin cried in surprise upon seeing the inventor, dressed in Metal Clan clothes, coming into the room.

"What're _you _doing here?" Asami asked as Varrick sat down in the chair next to her.

"Good question Asami," Varrick said before going still. "I mean, what are any of us doing here? Wow… Food for thought. Anywho, how is our company doing?"

"You mean my company?" Asami asked through narrow eyes. "Future Industries reverted back to me after you plotted to abduct the President."

"Allegedly plotted to abduct the President," Varrick 'corrected'. "Never convicted!"

"Umm… that's because you escaped our Jailhouse," Emi frowned in his direction. Emi remembered the rage Lin had when she noticed that the prison had been covered in vines, and that the vines had actually crashed through the walls. One of these vines crashed into Varrick's cell, and he had escaped, as said by witnesses, on some kind of glider that was controlled by his assistant Zhu Li, who was standing silently behind him by the wall.

"No, the universe decided to set me free," He continued to deny he had done anything illegal. "So I looked up my friend Suyin here, pitched her a few ideas, and BAM!" He banged his metal plated arm on the table. "We're in business together!"

"Varrick's setting up my new technology division," Su explained. Emi looked carefully at Lin. She was breathing hard, and, as Emi predicted, was close to breaking. Varrick, the person who had set them all on a wild horned goose chase for months was being welcomed into Suyin Beifong's home as a guest and a business partner. Emi was going to make sure that Varrick got what he deserved when the time came for it. He hadn't gotten any punishment for his actions, so she would give him the justice he deserved.

"I've seen the future," Varrick said enthusiastically. "And the future is… magnets!" He wiped out an actual magnet from inside his robes, and then threw it away across the room. Emi had to bend it quickly so it wouldn't hit Huan in the face. Huan gave her a thankful smile before taking the levitating magnet, and setting it on the table. Su nodded her own thanks to Emi before looking back at Varrick. "I'm working on a high speed rail that will revolutionize transportation and shipping as we know it. But that's not all, I'm…"

"Alright enough!"

Lin sprang up from her chair in a fit of uncontrollable rage. She turned to Su with one of the biggest scowls that Emi had ever seen on her face.

"I'm trying to keep the Avatar safe, and you're harboring a criminal!"

"Ease up Lin," Su said, and Emi shook her head at Su from behind Lin's back. Telling Lin to be calm was like trying to tell a charging Mooselion to stop. You just made their angry urges worse. "Sure Varrick has made some mistakes in his past, but that doesn't mean he should pay for it the rest of his life. My chef was a pirate, but now he is a culinary master. People change."

"You haven't!" Lin roared before knocking over her chair with a well placed punch.

"Lin, sweetheart, please listen for a minute," Emi tried to convince the Chief of Police to stay, but it was no use. Lin stormed out of the room, and used her cables to slam the door behind her. Emi gave a sad sigh before turning back to the table. Everyone had gone silent, and Emi used that. She proceeded to metalbend the metal under Varrick's chair, so he went flying backwards with a yelp. He gave a groan of pain, as Zhu Li rushed to help him up, before looking at the clearly annoyed metalbender.

"What was that for?" He asked.

"You didn't serve your time in prison, so I decided to fling you across the room instead," Emi told him. "After you escaped, Lin and I got all those complaints from all those sailors' families about how justice was not served."

"So, what's one less guy in prison?" Varrick asked as he dusted himself off.

"Those were the families of the sailors who drowned."

That caused the room to go silent again. Su looked down at her plate, and Mako nodded his head. "They weren't happy about you sending them on those fake boats that ended up getting them killed," the firebender said with a frown.

"I didn't directly send them to their death, it was the spirits who did the nasty work," Varrick tried to defend himself.

"But you meant for those boats to be ambushed, and you knew that they would be of no use to the people they were supposedly sailing to," Emi said as she looked down at the table. "Those sailors thought that they were doing something good when they went out to sea and died believing it, but they were really only out there as _bait_." She spat the last word in disgust.

No one dared to speak. The atmosphere that used to be joyful had dampened when Lin had stormed out, but now it was drenched with sorrowful thoughts.

"I never knew," Korra barely whispered.

"Me neither," Su said. "I mean, I've heard of what happened regarding the boats in Republic City and the South pole, but I never knew how awful the facts were."

"That's what caused Lin to storm out, which I apologize for," Emi said. "She gets moody when she can't give someone the justice they deserve."

"The life of a police officer," Mako nodded his understanding. "But don't get me wrong. The Chief is super tough, and that's what makes her such a great Chief of Police. Her one on one conversation skills aren't the best, but put a case in front of her and she'll solve it in a couple days tops."

"I think you and Lin are just having a little miscommunication," Emi told Su. "She still thinks you're the rebellious teenager, and you still think she is emotionless, selfish, and too ambitious, which is not true. You both have changed, and you need to understand that."

"But I do understand that!" Su said as she threw her hands with frustration into the air. "I've been trying for years to get Lin to talk to me. I've called her, sent her letters, and I even came to Republic City once, but she wouldn't see me. She needs to know that I've changed, but she seems to be too stubborn to see it that way."

"You just need to give her a good reason to believe you," Emi encouraged. "Cuts can go really deep, and the scars even deeper," Emi was happy that Su's eyes widened in realization. She knew that Emi was talking about the two scars that cut across Lin's cheek.

"Fine," the Matriarch gave in. "I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you Su," Emi smiled. "I want you guys to stop fighting more than you probably do. Trying to be nice to a raging Lin is hard work."

Su giggled before Huan spoke up. "Um Emi?"

"Yes?" Emi asked as she smiled at him across the table.

"Can I show you something?" he asked as he pointed to the door.

"Sure, I got nothing else to do," Emi said before they both got up from their chairs.

"What exactly are you showing her?" Su asked her son with a suspicious eyebrow.

"Just a new sculpture I'm working on," Huan said. "I want her opinion about how to start the base." Emi was impressed about how good of a liar Huan was. She could barely feel any change in his heart rate. Emi guessed he had been lying for quite some time considering no one in his family knew he was gay.

"Alright," Su said, her suspicion completely evaporated.

"I'll see you all around," Emi waved before heading to the door.

"See ya Captain," Mako said while everyone else waved back. Emi nodded her head before following Huan out the door. After she was certain no one could hear them, she asked Huan.

"Okay I know we're not going to look at sculptures," Emi smirked. "What are we doing?"

"Umm," Huan was having trouble explaining his intentions. "Well, since we have similar feelings towards each other's genders and since you're not as mean towards our half of the Beifong family like my Aunt Lin is, can I take you to meet my boyfriend."

"I would be honored, but I'm quite surprised," Emi told him as the continued walking through the hallways of the Beifong compound. "We just met today."

"You just seem like that type of people who are just nice to everyone they meet," Huan explained. "And there aren't many people like that, so now or never right?"

"I try to be nice to everyone, that is true," Emi smiled. "So, what's his name?"

"His name is Haruto, and he's an artist like me. We met at a convention a couple of months ago, and I think it's going really well. We decided today to take our relationship a step ahead, and bring someone from each of our families for the other to meet. Do you think my Aunt's girlfriend would count as family?"

"We can get away with it, I'm sure," Emi laughed, "Where are we meeting them?"

"We've got four tickets to go see a new art exhibit in town tonight, so we thought we would meet there."

"Oh dear, does this exhibit require dressing up because if so, I'm sorry to say I'll stand out. I don't have anything to wear besides what I'm wearing now or I can put on my uniform again."  
"Didn't mom say something about putting Zaofu clothes in each guest room?" Huan asked himself.

"Oh my goodness, there _are _Zaofu clothes in our room, I forgot about those," Emi mentally slapped herself. "I can go put one of those on. Where do you want me to meet you?"

"By the tram station is fine," Huan said. After that, Emi ran back to the house she shared with Lin. She crossed her fingers and hoped that either Lin had calmed down, or she wasn't even there. Emi gave out a sigh when she found no grumpy Chief of Police in any of the three rooms. She would not have been happy if she had seen Emi in Zaofu clothes instead of her uniform.

Emi ran into their bedroom, and layed down the possible options of clothing. The one she ended up picking out was an outfit with a light grey shirt and pants, a dark green robe that had connected in the middle because of silver belt that went around her waist over all her clothing and had sleeves that only went halfway down her upper arm, a necklace of metal that started out as a tiny, metal plates on her shoulders that gradually increased to a huge plate right in the middle, and arm bands of the same dark green that gradually increasing sizes of metal down her arm like her necklace and almost went to her elbow. After being happy with what she saw in the mirror, she was about to run out of the house. The gleam of metal inside the cabinet in the bedroom made her stop. She opened it to find her and Lin's metal uniforms. _Lin must have taken hers off too_, Emi thought. She noticed that Lin's badge was missing from her uniform, and Emi knew she had taken it because that was one of the rule book's most important rules: never leave anywhere without your badge. Emi smiled, and took her badge off of her uniform too, and put it in her pocket. She then hurried out of the room, met Huan at the tram station, and they proceeded to go into the biggest dome covered part of the city.

They had met Haruto, who was a lovely gentleman and never told a lie, and his young, sweet, and jumpy cousin, whose name was Sara, and they went into the exhibit. Emi knew that Haruto and Huan never got enough time together due to the fact that their relationship was a secret to their families, so Emi volunteered to played babysitter for Sara while they admired the artwork.

"Okay, I spy with my little eye something pink," Emi said to the little 5 year old girl as they sat in the gallery's cafe with their smoothies.

"My bunny shirt!" she giggled.

"You are so good at this," Emi cried with the level of enthusiasm used on little kids. "Okay, you're turn."

"I spy with my little bitty eye something… green," Sara giggled.

Emi sighed. Everything in the room was green. This would take a while.

"Our chairs?" Emi guessed. They were sitting on light green chairs that were so tall Emi's feet couldn't reach the floor.

"Nope," Sara giggled harder.

"The walls?"

"Nope!"

"I know, how about my clothes?" Emi asked, pointing to her Zaofu robes.

"You're close," Sara was trying hard not to laugh out loud.

"How about mine."

Emi's eyes widened. Uh oh. She turned to see Suyin standing there with her hands on her hips. Emi cursed the tall chairs. She would have been able to sense Su if she had kept her feet on the ground.

"You got it," Sara said triumphantly.

Su smiled at the child, but her smile disappeared when she looked at Emi.

"Why are you here?" She asked the metalbending officer.

"I was about to ask you the same question," Emi countered.

"I have a membership to this gallery, so I can come and go as I please," Su said. "You just got to this city today, so how were you able to get a ticket inside."

"I'm sorry Su, but that is classified," Emi said, "I've been sworn to secrecy."

"There are no secrets in my city," Su said as she crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes.

"There are if you're me," Emi said, "You're not the only person who knows a Truth-Seer."  
"Who's the Truth-Seer you know?" Su asked. "Bolin? Oh please don't say Lin."

"Nope," Emi smirked. "I'm the Truth-Seer. It's helpful when you interrogate Triad members, let me tell you."

"Look I know that Lin told you what happened, and now I know Lin couldn't have lied about it," Su huffed, "But that's not why I'm here. I saw you and Huan getting into a tram together. I knew this was one of Huan's favorite places, so I came to investigate. I'm glad I did. Where is Huan?"

"He gave me the ticket here because he knew I liked art and I was trustworthy," Emi told the matriarch, "But we split ways after that to look at things ourselves."

"And apparently one of these things is a child," Su said gesturing to Sara who was still smiling.

"I'm Sara," she said. "You're pretty."

"Thank you," Su smiled at the child. "But who do you belong to."

"I came here with Cousin Haruto," Sara said, and Emi mentally slapped herself. Of course. Little kids always tell the truth. They aren't smart enough to think up lies on their own.

"And that would be me ma'am."

Everyone turned to see Haruto walking over. He gave a small bow to the matriarch, who eyed him with suspicion. Emi's eyes widened at him, and she then immediately saw Huan hiding behind one of the decorative bushes at the entrance to the cafe.

"I gave my cousin to Officer Emilia here," Haruto continued, "So I could admire this gallery's wonderful artwork undisturbed. I apologize for my laziness."  
"I would be mildly concerned if you left your cousin with some stranger," Su said to the young man as she raised a suspicious eyebrow. "But since you knew she was a police officer, I'll let it pass."

"Thank you ma'am. Come on Sara," Haruto motioned to the child. Emi got up to help the girl off the tall chair. When she set her on the ground, the girl hugged Emi's legs.

"Thank you for playing with me and giving me a smoothie," Sara smiled.

"It was a pleasure being in your company Sara," Emi said as she rubbed the girl's back. "I hope to see you again soon."

"Me too," Sara laughed as she skipped to her cousin. She took a hold of Haruto's hand before starting to walk away. Haruto gave a slight nod of his head to Emi, which Emi knew meant thank you for more than one thing. Emi then redirected her eyes to Huan, who looked relieved, before turning back to Su.

"So do you want to go home or look around?" Emi asked her.

"I might look around for a bit," Su said as she looked up at the cafe's high, well painted ceiling. "It's been a while since I've had any reason to be here, but you, however, are welcome to go home."  
"I think I will," Emi said as she placed her hands behind her back. "I'll see you later."

"Oh by the way," Su stopped her, "You look fantastic in those robes."

"Thank you," Emi winked before walking out of the cafe. Once out, she almost crashed into Huan, who hugged her. Emi was taken so off guard by this that she almost forgot what oxygen was.

"Thank you for that," he said after he pulled away, "I know we should have thought about mom possibly following us."

"We didn't get caught right?" Emi smiled before looking around. "Where did Haruto go?"  
"I told him to get out of here while he could," Huan said, "What did my mom said she was going to do?"

"She said she was going to look around the gallery for a bit," Emi said, "So if you don't want her to catch you and ask you questions, I suggest we get out of here."

"Good idea," Huan agreed. They left the gallery, and went back to the tram station. Once on the trams, Huan talked about the pieces he had seen and ones he wanted to do an inspired work on. After they exited the tram at the Beifong estate and Huan said good night, Emi went back to her guest house. She didn't even think before opening the door.

Lin was in there, and she was indeed out of her uniform and was wearing just her tank top, sweatpants, and metal boots. Emi would have only thought about how sexy Lin looked if it hadn't been for a new found fear settling in her heart at the realization of the situation. When Lin looked up from her newspaper where she sat in the living room's chair, her face expressed her confusion. Emi gave Lin a sheepish smile, that the Chief of Police answered with a frown, before Lin turning away. Emi sighed before sitting on the couch facing her.

"I'm wearing this because Huan invited me to this art gallery in the city, which is supposed to be super fancy or whatever," Emi explained.

"You look like you had fun," Lin scoffed.

"I had fun being a distraction to Su while Huan and his boyfriend hurried out of the gallery," Emi laughed. "It was funny job to maneuver them around her."

"Why was Su there?" Lin asked, not looking up from her newspaper.

"Because she was being an overprotective mother and followed us," Emi frowned.

"Ha," Lin smirked but it disappeared when someone knocked three times on the door to their house. Lin let her newspaper fall away from her face before answering.

"Who is it?" She asked with little to no interest. The door opened to reveal the Avatar's face.

"Hey, it's me," Korra said, "I brought someone who wants to talk to you." She swung the door wide so that the two officers could see that Opal was standing outside too.

"You want to talk?" Lin asked before folding her newspaper, throwing it on to the table in the middle of the ring of furniture, and crossing her legs, "Then talk."Opal took a deep breath before coming into the room.

"I'm sorry being here has been so hard for you," Opal said as she walked over to stand next to Lin's chair. Lin kept her eyes on the floor, and didn't meet her gaze. "When you showed up, I was so excited to get to know you. I'd heard so many great things about you from Mom and Grandma Toph. So I guess that I was kind of sad that you didn't want to get to know me." Emi saw Lin's eyes narrow. She looked between Opal and Lin fearfully. Opal was trying to be kind and caring towards her aunt, and Emi feared it would blow up in her face, "Believe me, I know that my family can be a little crazy and overwhelming sometimes, but I would love it so much if you would be apart of it."

"Get out."

Opal stepped back in surprise by Lin's deathly whisper of a response, and Emi got up from her seat in shock at how harsh Lin's words were.

"I'm sorry, did I say something wrong?" Opal asked with wide, innocent eyes.

"Get out!" Lin roared before finally looking Opal straight in the eye.

"Lin!" Emi yelled at her girlfriend in such shock that she was about to fall over. What was she doing?! This was no way to talk to a child who was trying to help her. Emi turned to Opal, who had tears brimming in her eyes, as she ran out of the house. "Opal, wait!" Emi cried after the airbender before running out of the room herself. Lin watched her go, and she felt a sense of loss immediately.

"What's your problem?" Korra asked Lin angerly as Lin reluctantly gave the Avatar her attention, "Don't get mad at Opal! I asked her to talk to you because I thought it would help you snap out of whatever funk you were in, but I guess I was wrong."

Lin gripped her thighs in rage before surging out of her seat to face the Avatar. "Why don't you focus on fixing the world, and stop trying to fix my family!" Lin turned her back on Korra before the Avatar spoke.

"Su's right. You're never going to change. You're always going to be a bitter, lonely woman." Korra turned and left the room before closing the door behind her. Lin felt another headache coming on, and lifted her hand to her head. When the pain came crashing down on her, she broke. She let the first tear fall, and then another, and then another. She collapsed to her knees, and clutched her head with both of her hands as she cried. Her sobs made her headache hurt even more, but she found that she didn't care. The only thing she cared about in that moment had walked out the door. Emi was the only reason she could stay sane anymore, and she might have just lost her forever.

"Opal, sweetheart, come back!"  
Emi sprinted after the airbender as fast as she could with the robes she was wearing. Thankfully Opal hadn't mastered the Airbender technique of being light on your feet yet, so Emi caught up to her after a couple seconds. She grabbed Opal's arm, spun her around, and gave her a tight hug. Opal cried into her shoulder as Emi rubbed soothing circles on her back.

Su had just gotten off of her late night tram ride from the gallery, and was making her way to the guest house street on her way home. She squinted her eyes to make out the identities of the two people at the end of the street. When she realized it was Emi holding her crying daughter, she went off at a sprint herself.

"Opal, darling, what's wrong?" Su asked as she came to a halt beside them. Opal turned, and went into her mother's arms. Emi sighed sadly at the crying Airbender.

"Opal here was being very sweet and tried to break Lin's mad mood, which ended with Lin yelling at her," Emi explained for Opal, "I'm sorry."

"It's not your job to take responsibility for everything Lin does," Su said as she took over Emi's work of rubbing Opal's back. "I can't believe she would do something so cruel."

"Me neither," Emi whispered under her breath. They parted ways since Emi was confident Su could make Opal feel better, and Emi went back to her house. When she opened the door, she found Lin on the ground crying and clutching her head. Emi quickly shut the door, and walked over to her. She pried Lin's hands off of her aching head, and wrapped one of her arms around her own shoulders to help her up and guide her into their bedroom. After she successfully conducted her into their bed, she attempted to wipe away her tears with her thumbs. She then placed the back of her hand on Lin's forehead. She retracted it immediately when she realized that Lin's forehead was burning hot. She ran into the bathroom, grabbed a washcloth, and got it damp in a sink of cool water before walking back into the bedroom and placing it on her girlfriend's forehead, which helped Lin visibly relax. After that, she got out of her robes, back into her tank top and sweatpants, and bent Lin's boots off her feet. Emi then laid down on the bed next to her, and gave her a kiss on the cheek before speaking.

"You need to see someone about this Lin," Emi pleaded, "These headaches are just getting worse. They're affecting the Lin I love." All Lin could do was nod before Emi wrapped her arm around Lin's waist, and closed her eyes.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8:**

**Sorry for how long this took to get up! This school year has been killing me and all the time that I would usually spend on my stories has been used up for homework! I have not forgotten about this story, trust me, I've got so many awesome ideas for the next couple of books, but it's unfortunately not my top priority. Keep yelling at me if I ever go months without updating again. That is just unacceptable! But without further adieu, Chapter 8!**

Emi woke up to the slight screeching sound of the Zaofu dome petals opening. She got up into a sitting position and then noticed how cold she was. She looked over to where Lin had slept last night and was surprised to find that she was the only one in bed. She checked the rest of the small house, but still found no Lin. Emi sighed, and hoped that Lin was just off taking care of her awful headache.

Emi, after pulling on her metal boots, walked into the dining room of the Beifong Estates mansion. Mako and Bolin sat on the left side of the table, Korra and Asami sat on the right side, and Opal and Su sat at the head. Su welcomed her and invited her to sit in her husband/Lin's vacant seat, which she did.

"Hey Captain," Mako addressed Emi as some servants put some food in front of her, "Do you know where Chief Beifong is?"

"No," Emi said as she picked up her spoon to eat the sweet-smelling, yogurt looking dish on her plate. "She wasn't in our room when I woke up, and I couldn't find her in the house. I'm worried about where she might end up, but I won't stop her from doing anything she sets her mind to. Telling her "no" would almost be a death sentence."

"I bet she's off somewhere sulking," Korra growled as she ate her food as well.

"I know she has a problem with me," Suyin said, "But she had no right to yell at Opal last night."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Emi cringed. "She's been having these terrible headaches for a while, which I hope she's gone to see a specialist about it, that makes her extra crabby. Trust me, she has a lot of sense, but she didn't show any last night. I'm sorry Opal."

"It's fine, it's not your fault," Opal smiled, but it was dropped quickly.

"And how many times do I have to tell you?" Su asked as she placed her spoon down. "Don't apologize for Lin's actions! She knew full well what she was doing, and you can't change her words after they come out of her mouth. Why do you stay with her?"

"She's everything to me," Emi spoke passionately, "Your mother was my role model growing up since my dad's the Chief of Police in our little Fire Nation town. But when Lin's face started popping up instead of Toph's, I grew attached. She seemed like such a talented, confident woman, and those are hard to come by. Trust me… I've checked…" Emi glowered disapprovingly before continuing, "I made it my mission to meet her, so I raised enough money to go to the Metalbending Police Academy in the Earth Kingdom from my mom's art auctions and any work I could find around my hometown. Most of that work was Police work or the occasional security job. I dealt with the easy part first which was becoming apart of the Republic City Metalbending Police Force, before going to the hard part which was getting her to notice me, let alone like me. After a couple of times of saving her life or she saving mine during the war with Amon, she came around. I've never been happier."

"That's a beautiful story," Su smiled, "But why Lin? If Tenzin's experience with her has taught me anything, it's that Lin doesn't like to listen. How did you tame her?"

"Don't make her sound like a wild animal," Emi said with a huff, "She's a sophisticated human being that cares about all people great and small… unless they are criminals. I admire her personality and courage, and she admires me for how I put up with anything she throws and my persistence. She won't be able to get rid of me easily. And she also has been alone for a while, and I think she likes the change. But don't get me wrong, it came as a big surprise to her when I wanted to date her. She keeps going on about our age difference like that matters."

"How old are you?" Bolin asked, and he was immediately jabbed in the ribs by his brother's elbow. "What?!" he cried in pain.

"I believe I'm going to be 40 come my next birthday," Emi answered Bolin's question without any hesitation. The room went silent. Emi looked between the shocked faces of everyone at the table in confusion. "What?" She asked.

"You're 40?" Opal asked in surprise.

"Almost 40," Emi chuckled. "I'm not that old yet."

"Wow, you're only five years younger than me," Su said with wide eyes. "How do you have so much energy?"

"I work out a lot, I guess," Emi shrugged.

"You definitely don't look 40," Korra said, "I always thought you were in your twenties and that Lin was a cougar."

"Goodness no," Emi laughed nervously before she shot a scary glare at the Avatar. "She's anything but, plus I asked her out first."

Everyone turned when they heard running feet. Wei and Wing, Su's twin sons, came into the room and ran behind Korra and Asami before coming to a stop at the bowl of fruit next to Emi.

"All set for your Power Disc game today guys?" Su asked her sons as they picked a couple pieces of fruit.

"Yeah, all set to kick Wei's butt," Wing said as he elbowed a piece of fruit out of Wei's hand and caught it. He took a bite of it before Wei responded.

"I'm going to Power Disc your face," Wei challenged before punching Wing in the stomach. Wing had a pained, I'm-going-to-throw-up face on before he swallowed the food still in his mouth. Wei smirked before turning to Korra. "You should come play with us!" He said.

"Oh, I don't think I would be much competition since I can't metalbend," Korra chuckled.

"Really?" Emi asked. "I thought you learned that while in the South pole."

"Nope," Korra sighed. "They only taught me the core mastery of each element and not their subdivisions."

"Well, I feel like a horrible person now," Emi said as she threw her hands up in the air.

"Well as the Avatar you should have mastery over all the elements," Su said. "I would be happy to show you the basics."

"Really? That would be great!" Korra cried excitedly.

"You should try it too," Opal told Bolin. Bolin looked like he was choking on his food before he swallowed and spoke.

"Ah, nah, I'm more of an Earth guy. The dirt, rocks, you know maybe some light gravel, that's kind of where my heart is," Bolin smiled at Opal.

"Okay Earth guy," Su chuckled mockingly. "Well, let me know if you change your mind." Su's smiled faded as she looked down at her necklace. It was levitating in the air like something was attracting it. Emi noticed that their metal dishes, utensils, and even her metal boots were also starting to shake and move. Emi metalbent her boots more securely on her feet before running over to Su and Opal. She unlatched their necklaces, that were cutting into the back of their necks before everything went flying off the table. Everyone ducked under said table as forks and knives went flying.

"It worked! Zhu Li mark it down! Magnet Suit test successful. Power down."

Emi grumbled as she looked over the top of the table. Varrick stood on the threshold to the room and appeared to be wearing the 'Magnet Suit' as he called it. It was just a metal suit with electrically powered magnets fused onto it. Emi shook her head as she helped Su get up. Emi watched Zhu Li unplugged the long, power cord from its power source and as all the dishes and silverware clashed and clanged to the floor.

"On to Phase 2!" Varrick enthusiastically said. "Zhu Li cleans up this mess!" He walked out of the pile of metal, and down the hall. Zhu Li hung her head in exasperation, and Emi rolled her eyes. As everyone got up from under the table, Emi metalbent Varrick's mess off the ground and stacked all the dishes in neat columns at the end of the table. Zhu Li gave her a grateful smile before tugging the power cord along with her as she walked after her boss. Emi metalbent the two necklaces back into Su and Opal's hands before they put them back on. Wei and Wing too had gotten up from the floor and had watched her metalbend everything away.

"Since the Avatar can't play Power Disc with us, do you want to?" Wing asked Emi. This took Emi by surprise before she turned to look at them.

"Well your game looked really fun when I was watching you play it yesterday, but why would you want to play with me?" Emi asked.

"From the way Huan was talking about you, you seem really nice and fun," Wing explained.

"Plus both Huan and Opal have had their life-changing journeys with you, now it's our turn," Wei smirked.

"I wouldn't say life-changing," Emi laughed, "But my girlfriend has disappeared, so I suddenly have a free day."

Lin, in fact, had not disappeared but was walking around the edge of the estate. She was doing a perimeter check to make sure that the area was secure enough to keep the Avatar safe. She didn't believe her sister when she said that Zaofu was the safest city in the world, and she wouldn't let poor judgment get in the way of the Avatar's security. She had felt bad when she had woken up early, bent her uniform on, and had left Emi sleeping alone in their bed. But she needed to clear her head, and that, unfortunately, was one of the things Emi couldn't help her with. She had planted a kiss on her forehead before walking out of the house. She knew of one thing that always seemed to clear her head… hard work.

She was walking around a building when she saw two of Su's officers leaning up against a nearby building. She was about to storm over there and tell them off, but she stopped herself for two reasons. One, this was Zaofu, not Republic City, so she technically couldn't order people around, and two, Emi told her constantly that yelling at everything wouldn't make a situation better. She always told her to take a deep breath and think. Lin suddenly closed her eyes when another one of her headaches hit her. She pinched the bridge of her nose and took a steady breath in and out. She had a job to do, and she couldn't let a silly headache get in the way. Speaking of things in the way, when she turned to continue walking, she almost ran into her sister's adviser, Aiwei. She growled under breath in irritation.

"May I ask what you are doing Lin?" Aiwei asked.

"I'm doing my job," She snarled before trying to get around him. His hand on her metal covered shoulder stopped her.

"Don't worry," He said, "Zaofu is the most secure city in the world."

"I'll be the judge of that," Lin snarled as she shook his hand off her shoulder. "I'm going to check every inch of this place." She made to get around him again, but this time he moved his entire body in front of her.

"Lin, you do not have to work while you are here," he said, "You need to relax."

"I'm fine!" Lin roared at him and immediately regretted it. She grunted when another wave of pain went through her brain. She reached up to wipe the sweat off the back of her neck and prayed to the spirits to make it go away. She didn't want to see anyone about it, but she knew it was getting worse.

"It doesn't take a Truth-Seer to know that you are under a dangerous amount of stress," Aiwei spoke with pity, "If you don't deal with your repressed feelings, there will be severe consequences to your health… and your job." This caught Lin's attention. She didn't know to have this much stress could get her fired. If Emi had her job and she didn't, they would never get to see each other and that was something that she could never deal with.

"I'm not interested in talking about my feelings," Lin bared her teeth at him, half because of the pain and half because she was just annoyed about everything right now.

"You won't have to say a word," Aiwei assured her as he reached into his robes, "I know a great acupuncturist in town who will be able to help you." He pulled out a business card and presented it to her. Lin cautiously took it, and read it over. It wasn't too expensive, and she had done acupuncture before when she was little to help her with some depression issues. She knew it would help, but she didn't want any help. She could deal with her problems herself. She was about to throw the card away, but something stopped her. She had promised Emi she would get help. Their relationship was still on thin ice, and breaking a promise and even worse _lying_ would cause that ice to crack. She sighed. She would go to visit this acupuncturist.

**I haven't read this story in some time, so, when I came back to read it over before submitting it, I realized just what Aiwei was up to when he's talking to Lin here. He's making her stop working so his evil plans with Zaheer will go off without a hitch. He's scared that Lin will figure out something while she's working, so he's trying to push her off his trail by making her worry about her health more. That's some cold and interesting stuff there. I'm honestly super impressed with the writers. **


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9:**

**I know you guys don't want any terrible excuse, so I won't give you any. This has been held off for far too long, and I apologize. But as a New Years' gift, here is an update and a relatively large one at that. I'm also not even halfway through this story yet, so you can expect at least another 9 chapters... probably more. But unfortunately, they might be a little slow. Life is a terrible obstacle for writers. I also love to hear from you guys, so please review! They make me want to write more! They are fantastic motivators! But without further adieu, Chapter 9!**

"So how does this work?"

Emi was in the arena she had seen the twins playing in yesterday, and she had one of the power discs in her hands. She was going against Wei for their first game, and Wing was sitting above on the edge of the arena giving Emi pointers.

"You're supposed to hit the edges of the disc to keep it spinning and to keep it straight," Wing explained. "If you hit the top or bottom, it'll either hit the ground or just go soaring into the air. The goal is to keep the disc in the arena, bounce it off the walls, and get it into your opponent's goal. If it flies out of the arena or you make it stop, you'll get penalized."

"Okay, seems simple enough," Emi said more to herself than to the twins. She threw the disc into the air like they had taught her, and she kicked it on impact. It flew and bounced against the short, stubby poles in the center of the arena before ricocheting in Wei's direction. He, in turn, punched it back at her. This went on for a couple minutes as Emi got a feel for how it worked. She had noticed yesterday how the twins had been using the walls and the angles they provided to curve the disc into the goal. Emi concentrated as Wei kicked it at her, and when it was close enough, she kicked it hard at the far side of the wall. It bounced off, and right underneath Wei's outstretched arm. The buzzer sounded, and Emi laughed at Wei's unbelieving face. His face then turned to that of determined as he fished the disc out of the goal.

"Redo," He challenged.

"You're on!" Emi encouraged.

"I go against the winner!" Wing called from his seat as he got ready to see their intense game.

"How many of those things are you going to stick in me?" Lin asked.

She was lying on top of the acupuncturist's office bed. She had placed her uniform in the house she shared with Emi before coming here, and had wanted to apologize to the younger woman and explain where she was going. She had no such luck, however, when she found no one in the house. Lin guessed she was off doing something fun like going to fancy art galleries and eating expensive food. Her sister's kids were really taking a liking to her, and they actually wanted to spend time with her. If Lin had raised those kids, she would have taught them to be more cautious. Asking someone you had just met a day ago to do fun things was very dangerous, but, then again, Emi was anything but dangerous (unless you were a criminal). She was kind and loving towards everyone she believed deserved it, and she wouldn't stop now. Lin always admired Emi for her loving nature, but hated it sometimes too. It caused her to get too protective of the younger woman sometimes, and it made her have terrible feelings towards the wrong people. She couldn't believe that she was getting jealous of a bunch of kids.

"I'll be placing several needles on each of your acupoints," the acupuncturist explained. "There is nothing to be scared about."

"I'm not afraid of needles," Lin raised her voice, but knew she was just taking out her frustration on someone she didn't know. She also couldn't believe how much this headache was affecting her personality and her ability to use thoughtfully reason.

"Please close your eyes and take a deep breath," he said. Lin did as he said, and immediately felt like she was going to fall asleep. She hadn't had a lot of sleep lately, and she knew that it hadn't helped her current condition. "This process will correct the imbalances in your Chi," he explained. "Please tell me if you feel any pain or pressure." Lin concentrated, but even though she could feel the metal itself being inserted into her skin and the bits of earth within the metal, she couldn't feel the metal being inserted into her skin through her own nerves.

"I can't feel a thing," she told him in all honesty.

"That's unusual," the acupuncturist said, "You're Chi must be powerfully blocked. We're going to need more needles." He opened a drawer nearby, and metalbent a whole new set of clean needles out. He continued to place them in their correct spots, before continuing with his words. "Acupuncture often taps into people's buried memories. These memories can sometimes be difficult to process."

"Ha, buried memories," Lin mocked. What buried memories was she scared about? Her life had been the same thing over and over again, and each time she filed an arrest report or testified at court it got duller and duller. The only good part about it was the thrill of the chase or the fun of making a Triad leader cry or seeing Emi's smiling face after they got to the end of a busy day. The only uncomfortable memories were in her childhood when she shared the same house with her mother and sister. She stopped to think about the possibilities when she finally felt one needle stick into the skin above her nose and between her eyes. The darkness behind her eyelids immediately looked like it was being washed away and that she was being sucked straight back into her brain. When she landed in a room with cream colored walls, white furniture, and a stone floor, her eyes widened. She knew this room. She then looked up to see Su, but she was younger with black hair and looked how she had looked when Lin was a B-cop working under her mother. She was accompanied in the room by two men in green clothes, and they were looking at shiny stones and jewelry that they had gotten out of a bag on the table in front of them. Lin understood. This was her buried memory. The one she wanted to forget so badly. The one she had been trying to shove away for years and move on. This was the time when Su had joined the Terra Triad, and had used her knowledge of the police force to help them steal stuff. But now she was literally in it, and there was no getting out.

"Hey Bolin," Emi called to the earthbender. She, Wei, and Wing were taking a break next to the stream she had seen earlier when she had first met Opal. She had beaten both Wing and Wei two times already, but that was nothing to brag about. They had beaten her three times each. Bolin had been walking down the path towards where Su kept her meteorite collection (Korra had told her that was where she and Su were going to learn metalbending), and Bolin had jumped when hearing his name.

"Oh hi Emi, Wing, Wei, wow, what a nice day it is, ya know," He was talking really weird, and Emi could feel his heart beating fast in his chest. She exchanged looks with Wing and Wei before speaking.

"Where you going?" She asked him. "On this nice day as you say."

"Well, you know, somewhere I guess, maybe down to that one place, or over there," Bolin murmured with a sly smile.

"You know how painful it is to watch you try to lie to a Truth-Seer?" Emi chuckled. She heard Wei and Wing sniggering behind her.

"Sorry, I was just going to watch Korra's metalbending lesson," Bolin confessed.

"Why lie about that?" Emi asked.

"I don't know, I'm sorry, I guess I thought it would be kind of embarrassing for me, an earthbender, to watch metalbending instead of doing it."

"There is nothing wrong with watching," Emi assured him. "It took me five years of practice to bend any metal, and I still need work even as a master. You'll find something to make you even more special, trust me. But it doesn't have to be metalbending."

"I hope so," Bolin said sadly as he walked away. Emi stared after him pitifully before sensing a piece of metal flying towards the back of her head. She didn't even need to turn around, but instead just reached behind her and caught the metal in her outstretched hand. When she looked at what she had caught, she was surprised to see it was a power disc. She looked up with narrow eyes at a laughing Wei.

"Get up newbie, time to practise," he said mockingly like a commander in the army.

"I'll show you who's the newbie," Emi laughed as she threw the disc back at him. He ducked before it could hit him, and Wing caught it behind him.

"Last one to the arena has to watch the next match," Wing cried as he started running. Emi rolled her eyes and sprinted after the twins.

"Su?"

Lin gasped as she came out of her trance. She sat up quickly, and metalbent all the needles out of her skin with a speed that was boosted by terror. She huffed as she tried to catch her breath. She noticed that she was covered in sweat, and that the acupuncturist had ducked under the table in order not to get hit by the flying needles. Lin noticed that this didn't help because there were multiple needles sticking out of his head. Lin didn't have the strength or will to apologize, so instead she moved her legs around to the side of the bed and got off.

"Wait! Leaving in the middle of a session could make you sick!" the acupuncturist warned her.

"I'm done here," Lin struggled to say as she tried to walk. She made it to the door, but she had to lean against the frame before advancing. She couldn't see straight. Her thoughts were going all over the place, and her vision was fuzzy. She barely made it back to the estate, and was still having trouble walking.

"Wing you're swerving!"

Lin turned to see her sister's twins in their Power Disc arena. They were playing against each other, and were kicking and punching the disc with speed and precision.

"Isn't that what he's supposed to do?"

Lin with a grateful heart spotted Emi sitting on the edge of the arena. She was in her tank top, sweatpants, and metal boots, and appeared to be sweating. She must have been playing too.

"He's supposed to glide," Wei said, "There's a difference."

"No there isn't," Emi countered.

"Thank you," Wing said.

"If there are two words for it, it must be different," Wei countered.

Emi just laughed as she looked around. The mountain range that Su had placed Zaofu was really beautiful, and Emi wouldn't be surprised if people moved here just for the scenery and not the technological advancements. Emi took a deep breath in, and then suddenly locked eyes with Lin. Emi's eyes widened at how Lin was trembling, and appeared was having trouble keeping her balance.

"I'll catch up with you guys later," Emi said quickly as she got up from her seat.

"Okay, how come?" Wing asked as Emi ran over to Lin. One look at the two metalbending officers, and that was enough to answer his question as he and his brother exchanged looks before reluctantly continuing with their game.

"Lin!" Emi gasped, as she brought the Chief into her arms. She realized how much Lin shook, and how hot she was. "Are you alright? What happened?"

"I'll tell you when we get back to the house," Lin breathed. She couldn't use all her energy to talk. Emi just nodded, wrapped her arm under Lin's, and helped her walk. Lin didn't appear to be in pain, but she was definitely not feeling well. Emi took her inside, and sat her down on her usual chair. Emi leaned down, and placed her hand on Lin's sweaty forehead. She, again, retracted immediately. Lin was even hotter than she was last night. Emi looked up into Lin's eyes, and noticed how unfocused they were. Lin was breathing hard, and she was still trembling even though she didn't need any balance sitting in a chair.

"Lin?" Emi asked.

"I went to an acupuncturist," Lin breathed out.

"And it made it worse?" Emi asked in astonishment.

"Not exactly," Lin sighed, "I might have left in the middle of the session."

"Oh Lin," Emi sighed, "You know how dangerous that is. Come on, let's take you back, and this time I'm coming."

"I can't see those memories again," Lin whined as Emi reached to help her up.

"What memories did the acupuncture draw out?" Emi asked.

"The ones that are almost 30 years old," Lin breathed.

"When you tried to arrest Su, but she ended up accidentally cutting your face?" Emi asked as she ran her thumb over Lin's hot, scarred cheek for emphasis.

"Yes," Lin closed her eyes, and put her head in her hands. Emi kissed her temple.

"You can't stay like this Lin, and the only way to fix it is to finish the session," Emi whispered in Lin's ear, "I'll come with you, and I'll help you face your fears. It can't hurt you as long as I'm around."

Lin took a long breath in thinking it over before she nodded. Emi smiled before taking Lin's arm to help her up, but that was when Korra opened the door. Emi saw Korra, but Lin's vision was still off. She was hallucinating as she looked at the person who was at the door. She saw a young Su with her black hair and smirk, and she could hear her voice.

"Are you going to stay in your room feeling sorry for yourself all day?" She asked in her higher pitched voice. Lin blinked as she tried to clear her head. _Su doesn't look like that anymore_, she told herself, _and she certainly doesn't sound like that_. Su continued as Lin's vision started to get better. "You owe Opal an apology for the way you treated her last night," Lin now noticed that it was Korra who had opened the door and the one who was talking to her. "Are you okay? You don't look good."

"I'm fine," Lin retaliated at Korra as she leaned on Emi.

"She is fine Korra, thank you, we just need to get her back to her… appointment," Emi said as she walked to the door that Korra was holding open for her. Emi followed Lin's directions to the acupuncturist's office where Lin escaped her grasp and threw open a door to the left. Inside a startled man turned to look who was at the door. He had dark skin, balding head, and he wore the traditional Zaofu robes.

"What did you do to me?" Lin asked as she leaned against the door. Emi helped her off of it, and brought her into the room.

"I tried to warn you," He said with an accent as he came around the office bed to help Emi bring Lin in. "Come with me. Let's go finish the session." They were able to get Lin on the bed, and have her lay down. He then turned to Emi and asked: "Family or friend?"

"Kind of both," Emi responded. "I'm her girlfriend." Lin smiled when she heard her say that. She was relieved she hadn't driven Emi away, and it made her that much more calm as she closed her eyes.

"In that case, you can sit in the room with us if you like," He said as he walked over to get some clean needles. Emi took a chair from the hallway waiting room, and brought it in before closing the door. She sat down on said chair as the acupuncturist metalbent a needle in the air. He placed it in the skin between Lin's eyebrow before saying:

"Just relax and breath." Emi watch in fear as Lin immediately started to shake, tremble, and sweat like she was in a bad dream.

"Is that normal?" Emi asked with worry.

"Yes," the acupuncturist said as he placed more needles in Lin's skin. "Her chi is blocked, and she needs to go through her deepest, darkest memories in order to unblock it. It will only take a couple of minutes." Emi nodded, and decided to just stare at Lin. She was baring her teeth together, and she looked like she was mad. Emi smirked. She was even mad in her memories. Emi didn't take her eyes off of Lin for the entire session.

"You're going to feel a bit fragile, so it is probably best if you take it easy for a little while," the acupuncturist said as he metalbent all of the needles out of Lin's skin. Emi got up out of her chair as Lin opened her eyes. Emi was happy to see she looked better than she had before, but she now looked determined. To do what? Emi was afraid to ask.

"I don't need to rest," Lin said as she got up off the bed, "I need to do something I should have done a long time ago." Lin started walking out of the room, and Emi placed her chair back in the hallway. Emi, after making sure Lin didn't need her help walking, placed a hand full of yuans on the bed and she knew it more than necessary.

"Thank you," Emi called as she ran out of the room following Lin. The acupuncturist shook his head and smiled as he saw her go.

"Love," he laughed as he gratefully took the money and put it in his robes.

"Lin wait up," Emi called as she ran out of the building. Lin was making fast work of the distance with her strides, and Emi wondered what she was in a hurry for. "Where are you going?"

"To find Su," Lin said matter-a-factly.

"Should I ask why?" Emi asked as she got ready for the answer.

"I need to talk to her," Lin said as they made it to the tram station.

"Are you sure you're just going to talk because I don't want to get kicked out," Emi said worriedly, "Plus you heard the acupuncturist, you need to take it easy."

"Talking is taking it easy," Lin said as they walked onto the tram car. They were the only ones in it because not many people went to the Beifong Estate on a regular basis. Su has said it was mostly used by guard shift changes or political guests.

"For you it's not," Emi said as they sat in the first seats they saw. "You have the tendency to argue."

"It's not like I can die from not taking an acupuncturist's advice," Lin scoffed.

"But you've been in so much pain already," Emi said as she wiped the sweat off of her girlfriend's forehead. "I hate to see you in more."

"I won't be in any more pain, I might feel nauseous or, dare I say, weak in the future, but not in pain."

"I'm going to trust you Lin," Emi said as the tram stopped. "But please don't hurt yourself… or anyone else."

They walked around to where Emi said she had seen Su and Korra heading to earlier. They came across Su's meteorite collection, and Lin stopped when she saw Su. Emi saw the hate in Lin's eyes, and knew Lin was _not _in fact going to take it easy at all. Her emotions were in overdrive, so Emi knew talking Lin out of it was out of the question. Su had her back turned to them, and she was talking to Bolin. Korra stood next to them, and was listening to their conversation. Lin stomped over, and the earth quaked and cracked under her feet. Even some of the metal plates that had been engraved into the ground started to crumble in on themselves. Emi watched Lin's angry earthbending expand as it knocked a couple meteorites off of their pedestals, and was surprised. Lin had hid her anger well on the way over here. Su turned when she felt the shifting of the ground. She narrowed her eyes at Lin, and Lin bared her teeth right back at her.

"I think Lin is mad about something," Bolin whispered loudly to Korra, and Emi rolled her eyes after hearing it. They had no idea what sneaky meant.

"Su, it's time we talk," Lin breathed like she had just run all the way there, and Emi started to get worried. Lin was on the verge of collapsing last time Emi had heard her breathing like that. Emi got on her toes so she would be ready to catch her if she fell again.

"After 30 years you're finally ready to talk?" Su scoffed.

"When we were in Mom's office that day, you could have taken responsibility for what you did, but instead you stayed quiet and let Mom throw her whole career away," Lin said aggressively.

"Mom didn't throw her career away," Su defended. "She retired the next year. She was a hero."

"You think she wanted to retire?" Lin asked furiously. "She was so guilt ridden about what she did to protect you she didn't feel worthy of her badge."

"Look," Su sighed as she tried to be the grown up in the argument. "I admit that I was not a perfect kid and I've made some mistakes in the past, but…"

Lin's laughter cut her off. Emi, along with Bolin and Korra, looked at Lin in shock. Emi guessed that Bolin and Korra were looking at Lin like that because they had never heard Lin laugh before, but Emi knew that this wasn't her girlfriend's normal happy laughter. That was the mocking laughter of someone trying to get under someone else's skin. "You've made _some _mistakes?" Lin asked threateningly.

"Lin," Su said, her voice rising as she tried to get her sister's attention. "Mom and I already talked about this years ago, and worked things out. If you had gotten together with us like we'd asked, then you'd know that I'm a different person now. I've been a different person for a long time."

"You think just because you live in a big fancy house and have a chef who cooks you fancy food that you're a different person?!"Lin asked as her voice got a the edge of roaring. She started taking threatening steps forward. "Maybe you can fool everyone else, but you can't fool me. I see right through you."

Emi watched with dismay as Su's professional, do-this-the-right-way personality crumbled away at Lin's words. _Oh please don't say what I know you're going to say Su_, Emi pleaded through her thoughts, _you know what the consequences will be_. Su looked at Emi, and then back at Lin. The matriarch didn't act on Emi's silent pleads. "You know what Lin? You're the one who hasn't changed. You're still a bitter loner who only cares about herself. You're dear girlfriend over there will eventually gain some sense and flee just like Tenzin and Kya. You don't care about anyone else, and the ones who do care about you always just run because you can't see your own selfishness through your anger-fueled stupidity."

That did it.

Emi covered her eyes with her hand in despair as Lin bent a rock out of the ground, and hurled it as hard as she could at Su. Su stood strong, and blocked the rock with metal plates of her arm band. "Okay," Su challenged as she got back into her earthbending stance. "I guess this is how it's going to be."

She bent the earth under the metal plate Lin was standing on causing her to get pushed into the air. She then bent one of her meteorites into Lin's stomach sending her across the courtyard. Lin rolled across the ground and eventually was caught by Emi. She looked down fearfully at Lin, but Lin just got back up and continued fighting. Lin bent some earth at Su, but the younger Beifong just bent another of the huge metal plates out of the ground to block it before sending it at Lin. Lin gracefully jumped over it, and immediately bent an avalanche of small rocks at her younger sister. Su weaved and dodged around them, but Lin kept them coming. Emi, knowing she couldn't do anything without making both Beifongs even angrier, walked over to stand next to Korra and Bolin.

"Should I stop them?" the young Avatar asked as they watched.

"You don't have any siblings," Bolin said, "Fighting is all about the healing process."

Emi agreed, "After I beat up my brothers, they would leave me alone for a couple of days before regaining their idiocy enough to try to beat me again. They never did."

"That's the opposite for me," Bolin smiled sheepishly. "Mako always beats me in smarts and with bending." They continued to watch as Su did a cartwheel to dodge a wall of rock that Lin was bending out of the ground. Emi turned when she felt many feet running into the courtyard. Huan, Wei, Wing, and Baatar Senior all walked up onto what appeared to be the perfect spectating spot. It was literally a small mound covered in metal with stairs and a roof. The four scrambled up onto it after they had heard the roaring voices and felt the shaking ground.

"Go mom!" Wei shouted as she bumped his twin brother aside. Huan looked at Emi with a questioning look, but all Emi could give him was a shrug. She hadn't known Lin was mad at all until about a minute ago, so she was just as confused as everyone else. She planned to integrate Lin later.

Emi turned back to the fight, and witnessed Su spinning and ducking under thrown stones. Emi was impressed. Su looked like a dancer when she was fighting. Emi knew, after her morning with the Beifong twins, that Su was in fact a dancer. This made sense as she twirled on her toes, and leaped with grace. Emi knew Lin could be just as graceful, if not more, but she wasn't showing it. All of Lin's movements seemed stiff, tired, and desperate. Emi knew that Lin wasn't going to last much longer. Emi was ready to come to her girlfriend's aid when necessary.

Lin jumped into the air to avoid another rock, and bent one of Huan's sculptures at Su. This sculpture, Emi realized as it went soaring through the air, was the same one Huan had been working on the day Emi met him. Emi expected Su to bend the sculpture back down to the ground gently for her son, and if not for her son, maybe her courtyard garden, but she didn't. Emi, with wide eyes, watched as she bent it around herself, and sent it in a complete other direction. It smashed against the far wall, which was very close to where her family was watching. Emi, as Huan raced towards his fallen, and probably crushed, sculpture, noticed that even though Su looked like she was the better person in the fight, she still had some anger boiling. Old anger. The kind of anger that eats at someone for years before exploding. No one would be able to get out of range of the explosion, including her family. She was out of it. They were both out of it.

Emi had never had such problems growing up. The biggest problems she had to deal with were her father's police lectures, her mother's fussiness, and her brother's pranks. But she had always been a good sport. She would put her smile into everything, and it usually ended up being okay in the end. Lin hadn't had such luxuries. She had grown up without a dad, basically without a mother, and without a caring sister, who usually got her in trouble. No wonder she felt so alone.

Emi zoned her eyes on Lin, and noticed how her cheeks were red, her face was sweaty, and her eyelids were threatening to close. She was getting tired. Lin, in a fit of frustrated fury, ran at her sister. Su bent the three metal plates, that were under Lin's feet, into the air. Lin did a backflip off the levitating plates to get away just as Su sent them spinning towards her. Lin punched the first with her right hand, the second with her left, and pressed both her hands against the third. She flipped it over her head before she bent rocks under Su's feet. Su flipped and spun as rocks came out of ground at her. She didn't use earthbending unless she had to, and Emi rolled her eyes at that. Lin was right about one thing. Her sister liked to show off. Lin leaped again, and bent a larger rock at Su. Su, who had been pushed up to the metal wall of the courtyard, bent the wall around her. The rock crashed against the metal wall before Su bent the other side of the wall back at Lin. Lin only had time to protect her face before it smacked her with its full force. She went sailing over the stream of water, and everyone present cringed when she smacked back-first into the stair covered side of the mound the rest of the Beifong family stood on.

Emi really wanted to run over to her and help her, but she knew it would only make Lin want to continue fighting. Lin liked her reputation as an independent woman, and Emi knew she would think she was weak or had lost the fight if Emi came over to see if she was hurt. It took all of Emi's will power to stay put especially as she saw Lin breathing heavily and her legs shaking as she got up from the ground. The growl that came out of Lin's barred teeth made Bolin jump back in fear, and made Korra laugh at him.

"Got it out of your system?" Su asked with a challenging, almost mocking, tone of voice.

"Not quite yet," Lin yelled back at her as she bent the stone staircase behind her above her head. Su did the same thing with a rock as she started to run across the bridge that lay over the garden stream. The only reason that neither stone object hit their target was because suddenly Opal jumped onto the bridge, and airbent the stones away. This however did not mean that the two sisters didn't get any of the blast. They were forced backwards away from each other, and they had to cover their heads with their arms to protect their eyes.

"What are you two doing?!" Opal cried. "You're sisters! Why would you want to hurt each other?" Neither one responded, but Emi saw Su's eyes come back into focus. The matriarch caught her breath, and hung her head as her response. Emi knew she hadn't meant for it to all go out of hand, but the tension had gotten the better of both of them. Lin's response, however, was very different.

Lin started to hyperventilate before she let out a moaning gasp. Emi sprinted over to Lin as she fell back. Emi slid on her knees, and caught Lin's head before it could hit the floor. Korra and Opal gasped themselves before running over to help her, but Emi didn't need any. She instinctively placed her pointer and middle finger where Lin's larger veins could be felt. She closed her eyes and let out a relieved sigh when a strong pulse could be felt.

"What was that all about?" Su asked as she too ran over.

Emi glared at Su and didn't give a response. She instead lifted Lin in her arms and started to walk away. She would take Lin back to their room, and let her sleep. Lin should have listened to the acupuncturist's warnings earlier, but she didn't and was now paying the price. Emi knew that Lin's stubbornness could be frustrating sometimes, but she would never complain about it.

"I asked you a question!" Su shouted after her. Emi stopped in her tracks, and turned her head back around to look at Su. Su looked angry and confused at the same time, so Emi didn't know if she should have taken Su's shouting as worry or threatening. Emi took a deep breath in, and knew everyone present wanted an explanation.

"Okay, so Lin, before coming here, was getting super stressed because Korra wanted to continue looking for airbenders instead of going back to Republic City where Lin would both have more power over her security and she would have more security in general," Emi started as she turned her glare on the Avatar. "But Korra wouldn't allow it, so we came here next. Lin's been having these awful, stress induced headaches and coming to the place where her childhood enemy and family was didn't help. They got worse, so your Truth-Seer recommended she go to an acupuncturist. She did, and I went with her, and it did get rid of the headaches, but it caused her to see memories that are 30 years old. I'm sure you can guess what I'm talking about Su."

"What are you talking about?" Korra asked as she looked between Su and Emi.

"Ask her about Republic City's famed Terra Triad," Emi called to Korra, "I'm sure she has plenty of stories." Emi turned and left the courtyard, but not before hearing Korra question Su about what Emi had been talking about. Emi took Lin back to their room, and placed her on the bed. After taking her metal boots off, she grabbed a towel from the bathroom, drenched it in cold water, and placed it on Lin's forehead. Lin was still sweaty and hot from her fight, and she needed to cool down soon. Emi placed a kiss on Lin's cheek. "Sleep, I'll be here when you wake."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10:**

**With this is COVID-19 pandemic causing chaos, I have been able to get back to writing. And what better time to update this story than on the anniversary that it was published? Ok, so technically the anniversary was two days ago (April 9, 2019), but it still counts! I have also been asked if this story will continue into the comics, and the short answer is... I'm not sure. I have read all the comics (They are fantastic! Go check them out!), I can come up with a good plot line off the top of my head, but I'm not sure if I can pull it off with my completely fanmade book after Book 4. I'll let you guys decide. What do you think? If I get 10+ comments asking me to write short fanfics for the comics, then I will! But without further adieu, Chapter 10!**

Lin groaned as she woke up.

She tensed when she noticed she wasn't in her apartment, but then she almost facepalmed herself when she remembered that she wasn't in Republic City. She was in her sister's city, Zaofu, because she had to protect the Avatar from the Red Lotus, but Korra wanted to look for airbenders and one of those airbenders was surprisingly her niece. Thinking about Opal made her sad. She had yelled at her last night because her headaches had been awful and she couldn't help getting frustrated. Wait. Was it last night?

Lin took the towel that she just realized was there off of her forehead, got out of bed, and walked into the living room portion of their room. _Their _room. Lin smiled when she saw Emi sitting on the couch in said room pouring tea into a cup. She was wearing her Zaofu robes again, and, Lin had to admit, looked pretty good in them. They clung to her figure, and the green made her already green eyes glow like a dozen, polish emeralds. They also looked very comfortable as Emi laid her back against the back of the couch.

Emi looked up when she heard the door to the bedroom opening. When she saw the smile on Lin's face, she beamed back. "Are you feeling better?" Emi asked as Lin came and sat down next to her.

"I haven't felt this good since our last day off," Lin smirked when Emi's cheeks turned bright red. Lin pressed a kiss to her heated cheek which caused them to grow even more red. Lin thought it was adorable.

Emi cleared her throat. "Do you want some tea? It's freshly brewed."

"I'd love some," Lin said as Emi got out another cup. As she poured, Lin sighed. "Look Emi, I'm sorry for the way I've been acting lately. I've been really insensitive and grumpy, more than usual, and you shouldn't have had to deal with that. What I'm trying to say is -"

She was cut off when Emi pressed her lips against hers in a needy kiss. Lin had forgotten how good kissing felt, and she loved the way Emi had aggressively dug her fingers into Lin's hair and was definitely holding on. Emi pulled away just as fast as she had started the kiss, and smirked at Lin's surprised face. The disappointed moan that came from between Lin's lips made her smirk wider.

"I love you," Emi finished Lin's statement for her. "I was never angry at you, but just a little disappointed. Su deserved a beating, but Opal didn't. I'm happy you see your mistakes, but I'm not the person you should be apologizing to." Lin downcasted her eyes, and Emi handed her the cup of tea. They drank in silence until Lin casted a sideways look at the clock near the entrance door. She almost choked when she saw how late it was.

"How long was I asleep?!" Lin cried in shock.

"Probably a little over half a day," Emi said before she thought it over. "Yeah, after that fight with Su and after you passed out, I took you here, put you to bed, and I've been sitting here since late afternoon yesterday."

"Oh my spirits," Lin gasped, "I've never slept that long before."

"You never sleep, that's why you slept that long," Emi said. "Your body was craving it."

"I can tell you another couple things that my body is craving," Lin smiled as she looked at Emi under her eyelashes and sipped at her tea. Again, Emi blushed, and fumbled in her head for a change in the subject.

"Oh, and Song called me this morning," Emi said.

"Oh?" Lin asked, immediately being drawn out of her playful mood at the mention of work.

"You're not going to like what happened," Emi cringed. "The Red Lotus were in Republic City, and caused a massive car chase."

"Even after all the measures were put in place to protect the city from them?" Lin asked in disbelief.

"Yeah," Emi said. "Song described to me that they had tried to get out of the city by threatening this guy with a delivery truck over Kyoshi Bridge. They got to the security gate, and the man they had threatened freaked and ran. They opened the back to find the Red Lotus before being blown backwards. The Red Lotus drove away across Kyoshi bridge, and our men pursued. All cars went down either to that Combustion Bender, P'li, or the Lavabender, Ghazan. 12 officers in the hospital, and one dead."

"Oh no," Lin whispered as she sat back on the couch and put her hand over her eyes. "Who's dead?'

"No one we know very well," Emi said. "Song said it was a guy named Chu, who got melted alive by lava after going too fast and driving right into the pool. The officers who had been able to get out of the car with just a couple burns said that he kept saying "I'm a hero" and "they'll tell stories about my heroicness". They also said he was a selfish jerk that almost got them killed, so he probably won't be missed. Has no family that we can contact. When he first signed with us and we asked about family contacts, he said that he worked alone. The idiot."

"He still died even if he technically committed ridiculous suicide," Lin frowned. "This trip keeps getting better and better."

"There is nothing you could have done," Emi assured her. "You wouldn't have been out there anyways. Why would you go out to check a small security gate that went on to the bridge and not off of it? Besides, we got news about their whereabouts. The last person who spotted them said they were driving towards the middle of the Earth Kingdom. I doubt they can get to us even if someone tells them our exact location. This place is built in. There is no way to get in unless you fly over the extremely tall dome bases, or go through the tram system but they wouldn't be foolish enough to do that with all national leaders looking for them."

"I hope you're right," Lin said as she scratched her chin in thought. Emi watched her and smirked.

"Since you're in such a playful mood," Emi started as she took Lin's cup out of her grip, and set it on the table next to her's. "I'm going to ask you something." She crawled on top of Lin until her hips and legs were stradling her's. It was Lin's turn to blush as Emi's hands traveled up her strong abs and caressed the muscles.

"And what would that be?" Lin asked and she sounded more confident then she was. On the inside she was shaking and sweating, but on the outside she stood as still and emotionless as a statue as Emi played around.

"Could you… possibly…" Emi began as her hand started to snake, gently, around Lin's neck. All of sudden she retracted her hands and reached behind Lin and behind the couch. "Wear this?" Emi finished with a pleading look in her eye. Lin almost choked again when she saw what Emi was holding.

It was a set of Zaofu robes. It had a pale green, long sleeved undershirt, a grey short sleeved undershirt that went on top of the green shirt, and a black, sleeveless robe that went over everything. It also had a necklace of metal plates that Lin looked at as possibly being dangerous, and a set of grey sweatpants that were the same color as the short sleeved undershirt. She looked up at Emi with an expression that said you've-got-to-be-kidding-me, but the pleading look in Emi's eyes made her give up her stubborn ways too easily. "Fine," Lin said. "But I don't know if I'll look good in it."

"Yes!" Emi squealed as she hopped up from Lin's lap before extending her hand to help Lin up. "You _will _look good in this, trust me. Is a makeover pushing it over the line?"

"Definitely," Lin stated as Emi dragged her into their bedroom. Emi helped her get out of her tank top and sweatpants, and into the robes. Lin picked up her hair, so Emi could fasten the necklace around her neck as they stood in front of a full length mirror. Lin had been right about them being comfortable. The fabric used for the robes was probably more expensive than the stuff that Republic City used to make the Police gear. It was breathable and light, which, Lin guessed, was how Su was able to flip and spin when it looked like she had tons of heavy fabric on. Emi looked into the mirror to adjust the necklace so it looked perfect. She squealed excitedly again before hugging Lin around the waist. Lin smiled at how excited she was. If just this was enough to get her excited then Lin wished she had done it long ago. They both tensed when they felt the feet of three people walking up to the front door of their temporary home through their new, earth sensitive shoes (Lin thought they were pretty cool). The two officers looked at each other before walking quietly back into the living room. They stayed perfectly still as they heard one of the people speak.

"Who's going to knock?"

Emi laughed underneath her breath as the Avatar spoke outside. Lin just rolled her eyes. You would have thought that these kids would have worked out how to be sneaky. The sound of stumbling feet and Bolin's stuttering could be heard.

"No, no, no, not me!" Bolin cried as he stepped back. Apparently Korra had pushed him towards the door, but he was too scared to knock. "You're the Avatar, why can't you do it?"

"They're still scared of me," Lin whispered to Emi.

"After how you attacked Su, I'm not surprised," Emi smirked as Lin glared at her.

Korra hesitated before answering. "Uh, I can, but I just thought that you…"

"I'll do it," Mako said with annoyance before two knocks could be heard at the door. The door creaked a little like extra weight was being put on it. Lin and Emi obviously recognized that Mako had put his ear to the door like a good cop, but they weren't here to reward good behavior. Devious smiles spread across both their faces as they walked towards the closed door without making a sound. "Uh Chief?" Mako said as Emi and Lin got up close to the door. "You've been sleeping for 16 hours." Lin took a hold of the handle, and Emi was trying so hard not to laugh. "We just wanted to make sure you were okay." Lin yanked the door open, and Mako gave a cry of surprise before falling into their room. Emi let loose her laugh, and Lin just stared down at the detective with a triumphant smile on her face.

"Don't you know that you shouldn't be so loud around a Police Chief's residence?" Lin said as her smile grew and her eyes narrowed.

"We heard… you're entire… conversation," Emi gasped as she tried to catch her breath. "Oh that was fun."

Mako looked up at his boss and colleague as an embarrassed blush spread across his cheeks. Emi, who was still giggling under her breath, reached down to help Mako up. Emi's smile faltered when she saw the surprised looks that were on Korra and Bolin's faces. She then looked at Mako who too was looking with surprise over her shoulder. She followed their gaze to Lin, who was looking at the teenagers with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh," Emi figured it out. "I got her into Zaofu robes!"

"Oh," Lin said too as she looked down at her robes. "Yeah, this was not my choice."

"But you look absolutely fabulous," Emi said as she stepped out of the room, but not before giving Lin a wink. Lin followed her, and closed the door to their room on her way out. Lin gave the three teenager's surprised faces a smirk as she persuaded her excited girlfriend. Bolin, Korra, and Mako stayed silent as they walked away, and just exchanged glances.

"What do you want to do?" Emi asked as she skipped down the street.

"I don't know," Lin said as she scratched her chin in thought. She gave a cough, and her dry throat made her decision for her. "I am craving a thirst quenching drink, however." Emi didn't need to hear it twice before she took Lin's arm, and ran to the Beifong Estate. They had coincidentally bumped into the cook that they had met before in one of the hallways, and he told them he had just made a smoothie out of boredom that Lin could try if she was up for something new. Lin told him to hit her with his best shot before he laughed and told them to wait for him in the Beifong dining room. They only had to wait for about thirty seconds before he returned. He set a glass in front of both of the officers.

"What is it?" Emi asked as she picked up her glass.

"I call it the Kale Nutsco," the cook told her. "It's a mixture of kale, coconut water, and walnuts." Emi smiled with satisfaction at the answer before she and Lin took a drink. Emi took a sip of it, and her smile widened at how good it tasted. She then looked at Lin, and her jaw dropped when she saw Lin's glass was empty.

"Not bad," Lin smiled at the cook, and laughed at Emi's shocked expression.

"Is there anything else I can get for you ladies?" The cook asked as he smiled at the compliment.

"I don't believe so, thank you," Emi said before he gave them a bow, and left the room. She was about to take another sip when she heard voices outside. She couldn't see anyone, but they appeared to be close. The cook was talking to someone outside, and Emi recognized the other voice. Lin apparently did too because she looked at Emi with an uneasy expression. "You're good with Hisa. How is this any different?"

"She's older and smarter," Lin complained under her breath, so it would be hard for Opal to hear them. "Plus I don't know her all that well."

"Then get to know her," was all Emi could say before someone came into their view.

Opal stopped at the doorway, realized Lin was in there, and then tried to make her escape. One look at Emi's glaring face, and Lin knew what she wanted. "Opal don't go," Lin said as kindly as she could. She knew she didn't just scare Team Avatar, but she had scared her own niece, which felt worse than she had expected. She wanted to make it right for Opal, and Emi. "Please sit down. I want to talk to you."

Opal looked down at her feet without saying a word, and sat down in the seat next to Lin that Emi wasn't occupying. Lin sucked in a deep breath, and Emi took another sip of her drink to look like she wasn't paying attention, before talking.

"Look, I'm just not comfortable talking about these kinds of things," Lin started as she played with her hands to distract herself from her nerves. "And… well… I wanted to say I'm sorry about the other night."

"It's okay," Opal said in a small voice, but her expression said otherwise.

"Your mother and I have a complicated relationship, and…"

"It's probably difficult for you to be here," Opal finished Lin's unsaid thought.

"You're a smart, young woman," Lin said as she smiled at her niece. "And an excellent airbender. I think it would be a wonderful opportunity for you to train with the other airbenders at the Northern Air Temple."

"There's a part of me that wants to go," Opal confessed, "But I don't want to upset my mom."

"When I was younger, all I wanted to do was please my mother," Lin confessed herself as she looked down at the table she was resting her arms on. "I became a Police Chief because I thought it would make her happy, but it didn't." Lin looked up at Opal with every ounce of seriousness in her voice. "You need to make decisions based on what you want. Don't make the same mistake I did." Opal surprised both officers as she got up and gave Lin a hug. Lin hugged her back immediately, and had trouble not rolling her eyes when Emi winked at her.

"I'm going to go tell my mom right now," Opal cried excitedly before running out of the room. Lin smiled as she left, and Emi was about to say something along the lines of "I told you so" before Opal ran back in. "Oh and before I forget," She said, "Who's Hisa?"

Lin's eyes widened, and Emi laughed. "You got some good ears, kid," The Captain said.

"I've been known for being a good eavesdropper," Opal blushed with embarrassment. "You don't have to answer if you're offended."

"We're not offended," Lin assured her. "Hisa is a little orphan girl, who we saved in Republic City during UnaVaatu's attack. We fostered her for a couple of months after the incident until we learned that she and her school friend… oh what was his name?"

"Jun," Emi immediately answered.

"Yes, thank you," Lin responded, "Were airbenders like you. Poor Jun was also an orphan, so we worked it out so that he and Hisa could train under Tenzin, who is the only master of Airbending in the world…"

"And the biggest Airhead in the world," Emi chuckled.

"And so," Lin continued as she glared at Emi, "You will probably meet them when you go to the Northern Air Temple."

"Oh wow, that's so nice of you," Opal said.

"Well it wasn't like we were going to teach her airbending," Emi smiled. "And no one here can teach you everything there is to know about airbending, so I suggest you get your parents on board."

"I will," Opal said before she, for the second time, ran out of the room.

Lin and Emi waited for a little bit to make sure she had gone before Emi punched Lin in the shoulder.

"Ow, what was that for?" Lin asked in alarm as she rubbed her aching shoulder.

"That was for not believing in yourself," Emi said. She then pulled Lin across the gap their chairs made, and kissed her with all her might. After pulling away from the now dazed Lin, Emi continued her thought. "And that was for making things up with Opal."

"I was being a bastard," Lin stated as she got up from her chair. "She deserves an apology. The life advice was just a bonus."

"Speaking of your life advice," Emi said as she scratched her chin. "Did you really only become a Police Chief because of your mother."

"That was the original goal," Lin confessed. "With Su and I fighting for her attention I decided that if mom couldn't come to me, I would go to her. I thought that if I helped her out, she would notice me and be proud of me… it didn't work. When she retired and her opinion wasn't the main thing I had to worry about, I realized just how important and fun my job could be. I took it for granted up until that point, and I've been a better woman ever since." Emi got up from her chair too, and straightened out Lin's necklace again.

"Your mother might not have been proud of you, but I certainly am," Emi said as she placed a kiss to Lin's cheek. Lin smiled at her.

"That means a lot," Lin stated. "Thank you."

"I bet it was hard being the daughter of the great Toph Beifong," Emi admitted. "I don't even know what she looks like."

"Neither does she," Lin said. "And neither do I actually. I only remember the mother I knew in my childhood who always came home in her uniform, ate the dinner Su or I made, and then went to bed. We were lucky if we ever got three words out of her when she came home after work. She was always so tired."

"In her legends that I read she was always described as being tiny but mighty," Emi giggled. "Luckily you didn't get that trait."

"She actually was taller than me when I was in my 20s," Lin said. "She went on a hill of height. She started out small, grew up, then got small again in her old age. I can't believe she's still alive."

"When was the last time you saw her?" Emi asked.

"About 17 years ago I think," Lin said as she tapped her temple in thought.

"That's too long," Emi said, "I wouldn't be able to go a year of not seeing my mom or dad, which reminds me! We still need to go on our vacation to the Fire Nation."

"Oh no," Lin grumbled, "I hoped you had forgotten!"

"Nope, you are meeting my parents Lin!" Emi laughed as she started to walk out of the room. "I've told them too much about you for them not to meet you."

"Wait, what?" Lin asked in alarm. "Please tell me you didn't. What did you tell them?"

"All good things don't worry," Emi said as she stopped at the doorway to the room. She gave Lin a sexy smirk before saying: "I'm going on a walk around the estate. You are welcome to join me." She swung her hips in her tight fitting robes, and walked out of sight. Lin gulped at the display, and couldn't help but actually run after her.

They walked around the boundary of the estate. Emi showed Lin everything she had seen and learned when she had been out and about with Beifong kids the day that Lin took a sick day. She showed her how to hit a power disc, how to make a metal sculpture with Huan, and how much fun bending meteorites were. It took them a couple of hours to get around the estate with their frequent stops, and Lin decided to make one more. She had suddenly walked off the sidewalk, and Emi didn't question and just followed. Lin stopped in front of a statue that stood tall in the afternoon sun.

Emi watched as Lin looked up into the statue's face without a word of explanation. Emi followed her movements, looked up at the statue. It was of a woman that was wearing what looked to be old fashioned Zaofu robes, and her hair was in a large, tight bun. She stood proudly with one hand on her hip, and her feet spread shoulder width apart. Although she looked to be made out of silver colored iron, she now looked more brown than silver. Rust was spreading over her, especially on her bottom half. Her feet looked like they were turning red. She was standing on a metal pedestal that was made of shiny steel and bronze. The pedestal itself stood almost as tall as the actual statue, and seemed to be in better condition. The one thing about the statute that seemed to stay in better condition than the pedestal was her face. Her bangs cascaded over her eyes, and Emi wondered how this woman would have been able to see with them blocking her view. That's when it hit her.

"This is your mother, isn't it?" Emi asked her silent Lin.

"Yeah," Lin said with a sigh, "I've seen multiple statues just like this all over the city, and it confuses me. Sure mom did great things, but she wasn't a great mother. I don't know why Su praises her so much."

"That's because I love her, Lin."

The two officers turned to see Su coming up behind them. Su had a smile on her face, so Emi guessed that the talk with Opal had gone well.

"Uh, hi…" Lin said as Su came to stand next to them.

"Hi," Su said as she looked knowingly between the two women. "I put up these statues to not show how great of a mother she was, but to show how much her achievements benefited the world. Plus she's our mother, and we wouldn't be here without her."

"I guess that's fair enough," Lin sighed as she looked back up at the statue.

"Opal has decided to go to the Northern Air Temple," Su changed the subject. "I'm guessing you two had something to do with her decision."

"Well we were just…" Lin started defensively, but Su cut her off immediately.

"It's okay," Su assured her sister, "I'm glad she was honest with me. I want her to do what makes her happy." Su's smile faltered as she too took her turn at looking up at the statue. "Mom gave us too much freedom, but I feel like I've made the mistake of giving Opal too little. I think it's time I let her choose her own way." Su closed her eyes like the truth of her words were painful. She opened them again before directly addressing Lin. "I'm sorry that I gave you such a hard time when we were younger. I can't imagine what my life would have been like if Mom hadn't sent me away. If I had stayed in the city."

"You would probably be in prison," Lin stated matter-a-factly.

"You're probably right," Su laughed. "Mako told me that you two are excellent at your jobs. Republic City is lucky to have you. I know Mom is proud."

"She doesn't even know me," Emi scoffed as she watched Lin look back up at the statue with a longing look.

"You'd be surprised," Su said with a sneaky grin. "She always finds a way to hear all the gossip in the world. She was actually the one who told me about you before you arrived. She told me about all the times that you almost got into a fight with the President of the United Republic. Especially about the time that you almost got fired for defending Lin's job." Emi could do nothing but gape at Su words. Lin shook her head in surprise and asked the question for her girlfriend.

"How did she know all that?"

"She said something about seeing through vines in her letters," Su said as she scratched her head in confusion, "But I have no idea what that means."

"I'm afraid I don't either," Lin sighed as she closed Emi's gaping mouth manually. Su giggled at the action.

"Can we move on?" Su asked Lin like the question had been burning in her mind for a while. "I'd love for you to be a part of my life again. There is plenty of room for you guys in the house, and the kids would love having their Aunt around. I do need a co-director for my new dance performance."

"Woah Su, leave some Lin for the rest of us," Emi laughed as she hugged Lin's arm and pretended to look protective and intimidating.

"I appreciate the offer," Lin said as she placed her hand over Emi's arms that hugged her. "But I still have a job to do, and I know I'm not ready for retirement just yet. How about for now I just promise not to show up at your house and attack you again?"

"Deal," Su as she extended her hand out. Lin took a hold, and shook. The smile on Lin's sunlit face was nothing more than beautiful as Emi saw the sibling rivalry finally disappear. Emi couldn't hold back her excitement. The Beifong sisters gave a yell of surprise as Emi scooped them both up into a big huge. Their feet weren't touching the floor, and it felt like their ribs were suffocating their lungs.

"This is one of the best days ever!" Emi cried with excitement as she put them down. "Besides when you agreed to date me, or when we moved in together, or when we met Hisa, or when we…" She was cut off when she punched something out of the air that had been millimeters from hitting Lin in the head. She metalbent it into her hands, and noticed it was a Power Disc. As if on cue, Wei and Wing peeked around the bush to find their Disc, but stopped dead when they saw their mother, their aunt, and Emilia staring back at them. Emi smirked at their terrified faces before sending the disc back their way. They blocked it and laughed as they sent it back in her direction. She caught it, and ran after them with it shouting things along the lines of "You're so busted!". Su laughed as the older woman went off chasing her youngest sons.

"You're lucky to have that girl," Su told her sister.

"I know," Lin sighed lovingly as she watched Emi start a 2 vs 1 Power Disc match in the courtyard.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11:**

**I'm still trying to get over the fact that I've had this story up here for over a year, and I'm only just getting to the halfway mark. Yes! We are officially halfway through Book 3, but we've only just got to the juicy parts. You'll be happy to know that the Red Lotus fight scene is at the end of this chapter, and it was really fun to write about. I hope everyone is just as happy about this update as I am, and I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during these trying times. But without further adieu, Chapter 11!**

"I'll tell you this, I'm forever grateful for this trip," Lin said as Emi did her daily push ups.

"I'm… glad," Emi said a word every time she extended her hands the whole way up. "Su… sure… seemed… glad… too, but… I… think… she's… going… to… have… trouble… with… letting… Opal… go…"

"She does seem a little bit attached," Lin agreed. "That's probably why she's having that dinner tonight to honor her."

"And… it's… probably… going… to… be… our… last… night… here," Emi pointed out. "Since… Opal… was… the… reason… we… came… in… the… first… place… 300!" Emi collapsed to the floor, and Lin laughed as she tried to catch her breath.

"You were counting the whole time?" Lin asked.

"Yeah, it's a skill I mastered when I still lived with my parents," Emi explained as she got onto her knees, "I wasn't obviously able to completely focus on my workout with all my brothers around." She was suddenly blown back with a yell of surprise when a bright light illuminated in the middle of the room. Anju the dragon-eel spirit materialized, and Emi gave a huff of annoyance. "Is there a way to turn off that light?"

"Not when you're my age," Anju said as she tried to shield herself from Emi anger behind her tail, "Older spirits can pop up anywhere they want most of the time without giving off a light, but I'm still learning. The light is the spiritual energy used to transport me, and I haven't learned exactly how to control it." Emi just shook her head, and stood up along with Lin.

"What has been happening at the Northern Air Temple?" Lin asked the spirit.

"And how is Hisa doing?" Emi asked too.

"Well," Anju started. "That bald guy, Master Tenzin, was trying to teach those new airbenders, but he was getting frustrated because no one seemed interested. He ended up taking advice from his brother… who I can't remember… Bumi! That's it! And he was treating them like soldiers in the United Forces for a while…" At Lin and Emi's scared looking faces Anju quickly said, ``Oh no! Hisa wasn't a part of that training since she still has her injured leg. Jun on the other hand had to go through an obstacle course full of spinning flour sacks, flying watermelons, and some kind of prickly cactus. I actually had to save multiple humans from falling into the cactus patch. Tenzin got mad at me."

"I'm so going to slap that long faced hypocrite to the Spirit World," Emi said and she popped her knuckles for emphasis. "Who would do that to newbies?"

"My mother would," Lin said, but she quickly continued after seeing Emi's glare. "I'm not saying that what Tenzin did was right. Most of those people only got airbending a couple of weeks ago, and a lot of them spent those weeks in the Earth Queen's compound with rocks flying at their face every second. I'm not sure watermelons are any different."

"I'm done with the bad stuff," Anju butted in. "He sorted it out, and made some adjustments and apologizes. Eventually all the Airbenders had to work together to get Jinora and that little boy Kai away from some illegal Flying Bison meat sellers. Their teamwork built up their confidence enough, so that everyone felt fine."

"You said you were done with the bad stuff," Emi gasped. "People who kidnap children are the worst kind of evil. That's awful, but at least Hisa avoided most of the blow."

"Even if her leg wasn't broken, I wouldn't have let her do his training or go after the criminals," Anju stated.

"I'm glad to hear it because what he did was insane," Emi said. "Thank you for keeping an eye on them Anju."

"You're welcome," Anju said. "It's fun being in a place with so many nice people and spirits. I'm making lots of new friends!"

"You aren't scaring them are you?" Emi smirked.

"When they first see me they usually jump, but then I start talking in my apparently cute, squeaky voice and they calm down," Anju said. "Where are we?"

"We're in Zaofu, the home of the Metal Clan," Emi explained. "Lin's sister, Su, is the matriarch. Her daughter is also an airbender, and will be joining you within the next couple days. Be especially nice to her. She hasn't been away from her family before."

"Will do," Anju said, "See you later."

"Bye Anju," the two officers said in unison before Anju disappeared in a glow of light. Emi looked at the time, and immediately bent on her now freshly polished uniform. Lin looked at her in confusion.

"What are you doing?" Lin asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Getting ready for Opal's dinner," Emi smiled. "I recommend you do too."

Lin huffed as she walked into their bedroom, pulled out her uniform, and bent it on. When she came back out again, she gave a yelp as Emi grabbed her arm and bolted out the door.

"Thanks for making my favorite meal," Opal told the cook as he placed a plate in front of her. Emi was happy Opal was in a good mood especially considering she was going to be leaving soon. Emi and Lin were sitting at the far end of the table since they had come in late. Emi honesty didn't care though. Also long as she had one more meal from that wonderful cook, she would be fine.

"I'm really going to miss you Opal," The cook said. "No one appreciates my raw veggie wraps like you do."

"Everytime I eat raw kale, I'm going to think of you," Bolin said as the cook moved to set other plates down. He was sitting to Opal's immediate right, and was attempting to flirt apparently.

"You're so sweet," Opal said as she narrowed her eyes with a slight smirk. Emi laughed behind her hand at the situation.

"I think they would be cute together," Emi whispered to Lin as she gestured to Opal and Bolin. "Don't you think?"

"Perhaps," Lin shrugged. "I don't know either of them all that well, so it's hard to tell."

"He's funny, she's sweet," Emi said. "I can see them getting along."

"Zhu Li! Bring the… uh… thing!" Varrick suddenly shouted, startling everyone in the room. Emi and Lin leaned over to look down their table at the hyperactive inventor. Emi noticed Lin's eyes narrowing on him, and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Su will keep him under control. Don't worry," she said.

"I hope so," Lin growled under her breath.

Zhu Li proceeded to appear out of nowhere before taking something out of her bag and handing it to Varrick. "Check out my latest invention," Varrick told Asami as he presented the gadget to her. "An Airbender Finder."

"Wait, that can find Airbenders?" Korra asked as Asami took a hold of it. She aimed it at Korra, but nothing happened.

"I think it's broken," Asami said as she gave it back to Varrick.

"It's not broken, she needs to airbend into it. How else do you expect the thing to work?" Varrick said as though he were greatly offended. Emi again laughed behind her mouth, and Lin just rolled her eyes in response.

"Everyone, if I can have your attention please," Su said aloud as she hit her glass with her fork. "Tonight my beautiful, little girl leaves for the Northern Air Temple. Opal, none of us could be more proud of you. You're an incredible daughter, sister, friend, and soon to be airbending master." Su kissed the side of Opal's head, and Emi redirected her attention to the other table when she heard sniffling. Wei and Wing were crying silently next to Huan, who gave them a huff and an eye roll in response. Emi thought that Huan and Lin should have a battle to see who was the best eye roller. Emi honestly couldn't decide who would win.

"Here's to Opal," Su continued as she raised her glass. "May she help lead us into the new era." Everyone else proceeded to raise their glasses up in respect to Opal. Emi took a sip of the drink, and her taste buds immediately thanked her.

"Mmm, strawberry," Emi said as she licked her lips.

"You like strawberries?" Lin asked as everyone else got back to their food.

"They're my favorite fruit, and then comes bananas and mandarin oranges," Emi responded as she counted all of them on her fingers. After dinner, everyone traveled out to the Airship Dock and waved Opal goodbye. Emi noticed, as they all stood on the dock, that Su was having a hard time keeping it together. Her husband hugged her around the shoulders as Opal's airship disappeared into the distance. Emi wondered if she and Lin would ever be like that. Having raised someone for years, and watching them go. Considering their ages she guessed they would never share that feeling, but it was a nice thought.

She also noticed that a certain Truth-Seer hadn't come to wish Opal good-bye. Aiwei had been at Opal's dinner. He sat across the table from herself and Lin, and had been sitting next to Mako. Su trusted Aiwei with anything and everything, and he certainly knew the family well. Why hadn't he come to see Opal off.

"Lock it down for the night."

Emi was shaken out of her thoughts and turned when she heard someone speak, and noticed the Captain of Su's guard talking into a radio that hung from her shoulders. Emi knew that the woman's name was Kuvira from a couple of guards she had talked to at some point, and that she was an amazing metal and earth bender. She also knew that she had lived in Zaofu basically all her life, and that Su trusted her with _her _life. Emi also noticed that Baatar Jr., Su's oldest son and the only Beifong child that Emi hadn't befriended, was eyeing her as she walked away. It appeared someone had a crush.

"We'll head out first thing in the morning," Lin told Team Avatar as the lotus flower shaped petals of the domes started to enclose around the city. Lin and Emi went back to their room like everyone else. They bent out of their uniforms, and immediately went to bed. Emi was so tired she was asleep in seconds, but Lin on the other hand stayed awake a little longer. She had slept 16 hours last night, so she didn't feel nearly as tired as she knew she should.

She looked over at Emi's sleeping form next to her on the bed, and grinned when she saw Emi was smiling in her sleep. Whatever dream she was in was a happy one. Lin was suddenly taken by surprise when Emi hugged her around the waist while she was still asleep. "Fuzzy bunny," Emi barely whispered, and Lin had to actually cover her mouth in order not to laugh. She wasn't going to let her forget this.

After the shock and laughter was gone, Lin placed a smiling kiss upon her forehead. "You're a little kid when you're asleep," Lin told Emi's sleeping form, "All vulnerable and adorable. Not that you're not adorable the entire time, but this is a special kind of adorable." As if she heard her, Emi nodded her head, rubbed her head against Lin, and hugged her tighter. Lin smiled wider before hearing something that made her go on the defensive. It sounded like an animal squeaking, and since she had been stuck with that Bolin for a good amount of travel around the Earth Kingdom she knew exactly who it was. She could vaguely hear Pabu squeaking in Mako and Bolin's home, and he sounded like he had been spooked. It stopped after a while, and Lin relaxed her muscles. She was almost certain there was nothing to worry about until she heard a roar of another animal followed by two things hitting the floor. Lin pried herself from Emi's grasp, causing the younger woman to whine from the loss, and placed her feet on the ground. She stomped them briefly which caused Emi to bolt awake.

"Oh what's happening?" Emi asked as she yawned and rubbed her eyes, "I was dreaming about fluffy animals and birthday cake."

"I could hear," Lin chucked as Emi's face when red.

"Well now I'm embarrassed," Emi said as Lin concentrated. She could feel that the thumping came from Korra's room, and that there were multiple pairs of feet in there. Her polar bear dog was laying on the floor as was Korra? Wait, what? Lin's heart started thumping harder as she banged her feet against the floor again. Emi did too when she saw Lin's worried expression. They both felt the feet leaving the room, and Korra was no longer there.

"Maybe she and Team Avatar are going for a late night snack?" Emi guessed.

"Maybe," Lin said as she kept watching, "It is harder to get a read on someone when they have shoes on, but Bolin would have brought Pabu and I read four extra pairs of feet not three." They both jumped when they heard Pabu's high pitched squeaking again.

"What the heck!" It was Bolin talking, but he then started screaming. "They've got Korra! They've got Korra!"

"Put boots on!" Lin yelled as she followed her own orders. They tugged on their boots, and didn't even bother putting on their actual uniforms before bolting out the door. They were still dressed in their tank tops and sweatpants when they ran into the courtyard that was blazing with search lights and sirens. These were cut off however after the two officers saw explosions hitting the searchlights and the two bending brothers that went flying across the yard. Asami came out of her house to their aid, and Lin and Emi finally saw the four top benders of the Red Lotus in the middle of the courtyard and the earthbender, Ghazan, had a knocked-out Korra over his shoulder. Lin let out a growl as she charged with Emi right behind her.

Some of Su's guards had realized they were under attack, and came to their aid as they bent metal and earth to their will. One of these guards went flying as the combustion bender, P'li, hit their block of defensive earth with her third eye firebending powers. Emi saw out of the corner of her eye Su, Wei, and Wing exiting the Beifong Mansion. Emi then saw Lin bending metal plates that had been engraved in the ground around the Red Lotus. Emi, Su, Wei, Wing, and the guards followed her lead, and soon the Red Lotus was in a cage of purely bent metal.

"We have you surrounded," Kuvira yelled at the Red Lotus, "It's over. Release the Avatar." There was a heartbeat of a moment when Emi actually thought that the Red Lotus would give in, but that was before she felt the heat. She watched in amazement as the grass around their feet started to burn, and it was quickly followed by boiling, hot lava that came from underneath the Red Lotus cage of metal. Lin immediately bent a column of earth underneath herself, so she was propelled away from it. Emi was slower to react.

She was mesmerized by the colorful, glowing, boiling rock as it traveled ever closer. She had always been a warm over cold type of person, but she had never felt heat that she could actually feel with earthbending. Although it just felt hot initially, she could still feel the pieces with earth inside it. It reminded her of when she was learning metalbending, but the difference was it was extremely hot and it radiated a feeling of death and pain. At the very last minute, Emi felt the earth beneath her move before she was suddenly and expertly propelled backwards into her girlfriend's arms.

"What were you doing?!" Lin cried as she set Emi down next to her, Bolin, Mako, and Asami. "This is the worst time to freeze!" Emi couldn't come up with an answer in time before they all heard the terrible sound of shrieking metal. They watched as the metal cage came apart after it made contact with the lava, and Emi was impressed to see that Ghazan was bending the lava. Apparently, Bolin was also impressed.

"Wow that guy's lavabending," he cried with excitement before logic got a hold of his brain, "That's awesomely not good for us." This was true. How were they going to get Korra if the Red Lotus had a moat of lava protecting them?

"Look out!" Emi cried as P'li took aim at them. Emi bent another metal plate that took the force of the explosion. She planted it into the ground to use as a shield against their continuous blasts of lava and fire.

Emi took a chance, and looked over the shield. Ming Hua, the waterbender with no arms, was focused on Su and her sons, P'li was focused on some Zaofu guards directly across from them, and Zaheer appeared to be doing something weird with his staff. He was just twirling it in the air above his head, and was making some kind of umbrella of smoke above his head. "I wish I had my cables," Emi yelled with frustration.

"We don't, but they do," Lin told her as she pointed to a pair of Zaofu guards who were kneeling behind a plate of metal like they were. Emi brought her fingers to her lips, and whistled loud enough to get their attention. She pointed to Zaheer, and they nodded their heads in understanding. One of the guards jumped from behind the metal plate, and bent a cable around Zaheer's outstretched hands. The guard pulled him over the moat while his companion shielded him from a chunk of lava that Ghazan bent at them.

"Awful guards indeed," Emi smirked as she mocked Lin's previous opinion. Lin just stuck out her tongue at her girlfriend before chucking a good sized rock at the Red Lotus members still in the moat of lava. Bolin and Mako followed her lead, and Ming Hua was just able to save P'li from getting burned by Mako's firebending. P'li countered with a curving blast that would have hit them if it hadn't been for Su, Wing, and Wei bending a metal plate out in front of it. They then rushed over, and kneeled down next to them.

"How did they get in here?" Lin asked her sister.

"I don't know," Su said with a hint of frustration, "But we're not letting them escape." Emi went down on her hands and knees, and snuck a glance around the metal plate. She saw half of Su's guards distracting the Red Lotus, while the others were trying to build a bridge of metal plates over the lava. Ghazan quickly caught on, and shot a shreamline of lava underneath the bridge that caused the guards that were trying to cross to get blown backward into their colleagues. Emi watched Ghazan's movements, and how he chose to command the heated rock instead of letting it defend him like a normal earthbender would. Emi recognized his movements as being like how her mother and brother's moved when they were firebending. Fire was a very aggressive and swift element while earth is patient and strong. Ghazan was using firebending tactics to lavabend.

"There is no way to cross that moat," Asami said as she too watched the guards' failed attempt at crossing it. Emi redirected her attention back to her fellow hopeful rescuers. Emi watched as Su looked up at the top of the dome that could now barely be seen with all the steam and smoke.

"We don't need to cross it," Su said, "Lin and I can drop in from the dome on cables."

"No way!" Emi exclaimed, "That's a suicide mission! You would be jumping over a pit of lava."

"Not to mention we'll get blown up the second that third-eyed freak sees us," Lin agreed as another explosion caused them to cover their heads.

"She's a combustion bender," Su stated. "If one of you can stun her, her powers will be knocked out temporarily."

"Bolin can land a shot," Mako said confidently .

"I can?" Bolin asked with wide eyes.

"You have to take her out right before we drop down," Su told the fearful earthbending brother.

"I do?" Bolin asked as his eyes got even larger. Su didn't respond, but chose to run with her sons to where, Emi guessed, they would be able to climb the dome. Lin started to get up to follow them, but Emi grabbing her arm stopped her.

"I don't like this," Emi whimpered. "I can't protect you up there, and you can't either. You won't have any earth. You don't even have your cables. This is just screaming danger."

"Trust me, I'll come back in one piece," Lin smiled reassuringly at her. "But we did come here on a job, and that was to protect the Avatar. I can't go back home without completing it."

"Can I at least come with you?" Emi asked.

"We only need two," Lin said apologetically. "You just keep those criminals distracted and I won't get hurt. Please trust me Em."

"You know I trust you Lin," Emi sighed. "But stay true to your word."

"I will," Lin promised as she squeezed her girlfriend's hand before running after her sister. Emi watched her until she was out of sight before turning back to the battle. _Please be ok_, Emi begged.

Lin and Su collected long cables with pulleys along with two of Su's guards. They gave a radio to Emi on the ground, and brought one up with them to the dome's top. Once they got to the top of the dome they attached the cables around their chests and hips with harnesses, attached the cables to the top of the dome (which the collected guards were supervising), Wing had the radio, and Wei was checking the cables. The Beifong sisters held some length of the cable in their hands as the dome's roof latch opened up in front of them.

"If we get in trouble, metalbend us up," Su told her sons as she and Lin looked down through the steam and smoke that was coming out of the hole. Wing and Wei nodded their heads in understanding before Wing spoke into the radio.

"We're in position," Wing said and Emi heard.

Back down on the ground, Emi said: "Copy that." She then turned to Bolin and Mako. "You're up Bolin!"

"It's Bolin time," Mako told his brother, and Bolin immediately looked more serious.

"Bolin time… Bolin time!" He said enthusiastically to himself as if he was giving himself a pep talk.

"Are you sure he can do this?" Emi whispered to Mako as Bolin began to bend small rocks over the lava moat at the Red Lotus.

"He hit Wei perfectly in the forehead when we were practicing before Opal's dinner," Mako told her confidently. "His eye to hand coordination is pretty good."

"If you say so, but if your boss gets hurt, you're not getting a paycheck for a while," Emi smirked as Mako's eyes went wide with that realization. He opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by another explosion that was heard too close for comfort. Emi kept the radio close as she watched Bolin continue to send small rocks P'li's way, and, Emi had to admit, they were on target. P'li was dodging though, and Ghazan and Ming Hua were coming to her aid. Mako tried to fight back against the water and lava, but three against two were not even odds.

"I can't get a clean shot," Bolin cried as he and Mako ducked behind the metal plate again.

"You have to," Mako told his brother.

"Are we a go?" Wing's voice asked over the radio. Emi picked up the radio receiver.

"No go," She spoke as she watched Bolin attempt to take more shots.

"Copy that. We're a go," Wing said and made Emi roar.

"I said no!" She shouted back at him. "Wait!" Too late. Emi watched in fear as Lin and Su were given the thumbs up to advance. They jumped through the hole, and came speeding down towards the still functioning P'li. P'li saw them instantly, and began to take aim.

"Bolin! Take the shot!" Emi yelled at him as she and Mako tried to distract Ghazan and Ming Hua. Bolin took a deep breath before throwing a rock with all his might at the now vulnerable firebender. Just as she was about to let loose the power of her chi, the rock hit her straight in the middle of her third eye, and she, Ming Hua, and Ghazan was blown backwards from the force of her own combustion.

"Nice shot Bolin!" Emi cried as Lin and Su landed safely in the middle of the moat. Lin placed Korra's paralyzed body over her shoulder, and Su earthbent a dizzy Ghazan away. They immediately started to ascend back up to the top of the dome again, but Lin was jerked to a stop when she felt something grab her leg. She looked down to see Ming Hua gripping onto her leg and boot with her waterbent arm. Lin started to panic slightly before the water that was holding her in place separated. Lin started to move up again, and looked to see Ming Hua dodging rock after rock that Emi was throwing at her. Lin smiled as she got in line with Su.

Emi was about to heave a sigh of relief since Lin didn't get hurt, but shouts of pain behind her told her otherwise. She turned to see two of Su's guards literally getting blown backwards by a strong gust of wind. Emi watched in fear as Zaheer took notice of Lin ascending with Korra on her shoulder. "No!" the Red Lotus leader yelled as he unfolded his Airbending glider, and took to the air after them. Emi started throwing as many rocks as she dared after him, but she was unable to hit him with his airbending dodges.

"Lin, look out!" Emi yelled at her girlfriend. Lin turned at the sound of her voice, and gasped as she saw Zaheer gaining on her with his glider. He airbent a current of wind at her and she spun away from it, but it was delayed by the amount of extra weight she was carrying. Lin continued to spin out of the way as he kicked air her way. Su was trying to help her sister by bending the metal plates from her necklace at Zaheer, but they were hitting nothing but air. Zaheer, however, was hitting something.

Lin was beginning to think that Zaheer was just being desperate with his hits now because they weren't doing anything. Her thoughts changed however when she heard a _click _coming from her harness. He had been aiming for something. Lin only had time to throw Korra over to Su as the clasp of her harness broke.

"Lin!" Emi screamed in terror as the master metalbender began to fall. Emi didn't wait for anyone to tell her otherwise. She ran out from behind the metal plate, and ran to the other side of the lava moat where Lin was falling towards. Emi's fear doubled as Ghazan got his footing, and sent a wave of lava up to meet Lin. Emi didn't register herself jumping from the moat's bank, or running across the lava as it hardened underneath her feet, or the fact that she was now running up the wave of lava. All she could feel was heat. The heat of the fight, the heat of the moment, the heat of her emotions that commanded her body to move. It wasn't burning her. It was empowering her.

She reached the top of the wave, jumped up to meet Lin, and caught her in her arms. As they began to fall back down, Emi found herself hardening the lava so it gradually began to make a slide of hard, black rock. Emi gripped Lin tightly as they made contact with rock that began to slow them down. They slid to a stop on the cool bank of the moat , and it took them a minute, as they stared up at the dome above, to figure out what happened. Lin broke the silence with a struggling shriek.

"Holy spirits," Lin gasped as she suddenly sat up and started to hyperventilate. "That was one of the scariest experiences of my life!"

"Breath Lin!" Emi cried as she got up on her knees and rubbed Lin's back. "You're ok! You're alive!"

"I was scared about you!" Lin gasped as she wrapped her arms around Emi in a tight hug. "You ran out onto the lava, and I thought you were going to get burned but you didn't!" You suddenly pushed out of the hug, but kept her hands on Emi's shoulders. "Why didn't you tell me you could lavabend?"

"I can lavabend?" Emi asked as she looked between Lin and the slide of now black rock that stood above them. It dawned on her suddenly. "I can lavabend!"

"Why didn't you tell me?!" Lin asked again.

"I didn't know!" Emi exclaimed. "I can lavabend!"

"Oh goodness, are you two ok?"

The two metalbenders turned to see Asami, Mako, and Bolin running up to them.

"I think so," Emi said as she inspected herself and Lin for any possible burns. "I'm a little confused." They helped them up, and Bolin started shaking Emi rapidly.

"You can lavabend!" Bolin cried out in excitement. "That's amazing! How did you do that?"

"My girlfriend being moments away from death helped motivate me," was the best explanation Emi could give. "And we didn't die. Wait. Aren't we supposed to be fighting someone?"

"The Red Lotus just disappeared," Asami explained. "Su shot Zaheer out of the sky, and he airbent smoke around the rest of the Red Lotus. When it cleared, they were gone."

"Su has already started a search," Mako assured his boss.

"And Korra? Is she ok?" Emi asked. She couldn't figure out how so much was able to happen in such a short period of time.

"We don't know," Bolin whimpered. "I think Su took her back to her study."

"Then that's where we are going to go," Emi said before they all started running towards the Beifong Mansion. Emi stayed back a little to look at the wave of black, obsidian rock. I glistened like it was made out of crystal, and Emi thought it looked absolutely breathtaking. _I can help my mom make statues out of this_, she thought with interest. She reached forward, and bent a chunk of obsidian out of the wave. _I can find something useful for this_, Emi thought before placing the stone in the back pocket of her uniform sweatpants as she ran after the group.

They passed the now inactive moat of cooled lava, and entered the house. As soon as they stepped into the study, Su almost tackled Lin and Emi with a hug.

"Oh thank the spirits you guys are ok," Su cried. "I wanted to go after you when I saw you fall, but I was holding Korra and Zaheer was there…"

"Easy Su," Lin said as she broke herself and Emi from the embrace. "We're fine. You have nothing to worry about."

"Besides the fact that Korra was almost kidnapped on my watch and that some of the most dangerous criminals in the world got into my city, yeah, nothing to worry about," Su said sarcastically before turning back to walk further into the room.

Korra was laying on one of the two couches in the study. Asami, Bolin, and Mako were sitting on the other couch, and Aiwei was leaning over Korra as he uncapped a green bottle. _Now he decides to show up_, Emi thought with narrowed eyes. _He freaked me out from the beginning, but now he seems to be a phantom popping up as he pleases_. They walked over so they were behind the couch that Korra was laying on. Aiwei brought the bottle to Korra's lips.

"This should neutralize the Shirshu toxins," Aiwei explained as Korra drank the contents of the bottle. They all gave out a sigh of relief when Korra's limbs started to move again.

"How could this have happened?" Su asked under her breath.

"Didn't you say that this was the most secure city in the world?" Emi asked as she remembered Su's words that had annoyed Lin.

"It is," Su growled. "This was obviously a well planned operation, so don't blame me."

"I wasn't going to," Emi assured her, "You risked your life for Korra's, and that's all I can ask for. It just seems so impossible that the Red Lotus figured out where we were in only days, were able to find someone on the inside to help them into a city's matriarch's estate that has a multi-ton dome protecting it, and were able to sneak around undetected. I know that both me and Lin alerted your guard about them, and what they looked like. They must have had the patrol maps, the guard schedules, and a detailed layout of the estate. They didn't just have anyone's help with this."

"Who exactly are you accusing?" Su asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm not sure yet," Emi answered as she continued to think. "I need to gather some evidence."

Everyone turned when they heard the running of metal covered feet in the hallway. Kuvira came into view on the threshold of the room. "We searched the entire estate, but there's no sign of them," she said with her eyes directed at Su.

"Keep looking," Emi told the fellow captain. "They're good at their job, but I'm sure you are better."

"As you wish," Kuvira said with a bow, and Emi could see the ghost of a proud smile on her face as she left.

"I concur with what you are saying Officer Emilia," Aiwei said as he stood to his full height. "They definitely had knowledge of Zaofu that you wouldn't gather in prison, and Zaofu has been widely updated since they were locked up."

"The guards," Korra groaned as she sat up, "It had to be one of them."

"I agree," Aiwei said.

"Question them all!" Su yelled. "Whoever betrayed my city will suffer the consequences!"

"Hold on a minute Su. Let's not jump to conclusions," Lin told her sister. "Why would it be one of your guards? Why would they want to betray you? Do you pay them fairly?"

"Of course I do," Su exclaimed like she was offended.

"Do you treat them with respect?" Lin asked.

"Yes!" Su exclaimed since she was clearly getting frustrated.

"Then why would it be them?" Emi asked.

"They could have their own, personal motives," Su growled. "They could have family associated with them or they could be just that evil. I will find out which one of them is responsible."

"Su, you're just in shock," Emi tried to sooth the agitated woman. "Please think clearly about this."

"My mind is as clear as the cleanest glass," Su growled as she started to move out of the room. "We are interrogating every, single one of my guards. Come on Aiwei!" Aiwei didn't need to be told twice as he followed Su out of the room. Mako stood up from the couch after they left.

"I agree with you Chief," he said, "We're going to be wasting our time interrogating those people."

"That's why when we're keeping an eye on Su, you all are going to be doing digging of your own," Emi said as she gestured to Asami and Bolin. "The more time we waste, the farther the Red Lotus runs away. Let's go!"


End file.
